Nature's Heart
by TheHeartsPath
Summary: Unnatural eyes and abilities. Why am I so different? I'm now living in Japan with my family and my grandmother wants to talk to me. About my abilities? Something else? And what's the deal with the guy with crimson eyes? Not to mention his friends? Hiei/OC
1. Ayla Natura

_**TheHeartsPath: Hi everyone! This is my first fan-fiction that I have ever written so please be gentle. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've had writing it.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 1: Ayla Natura**

Hey there, my name is Ayla Natura, age seventeen. I'm your average human girl dealing with life and all its bullshit. I'm the average height of five foot three inches, with light auburn hair that's cut short in a style that's just a bit longer than pixie. I have freckles and wear glasses. Average looks basically, well except for one thing.

My eyes. They aren't what most people would call average. Most people would call them either "freakish" or "unnatural." You see most people have just one eye color or one eye is one color while the other eye is another color. My eyes are two colors at once. They are a medium sage green on the outer part of the iris while the inner part is a bright amber brown. Needless to say this has caused me a lot of grief growing up.

I grew up in America and am now moving to Japan with my family. My family consists of my mom Natala, my dad Aya, older sister Gwen, older brother Sinclair, me, younger brother Haku, and my younger sister Kira. Both my older and younger siblings are twins. The reason we are moving to Japan is because my dad got a job offer from some electronics company in Tokyo.

My older siblings and I will be attending high school together. Seeing as how Gwen and Sinclair are seniors and I'm a junior. Haku and Kira will be attending a nearby elementary school.

I am not looking forward to this new school and it's not cause I hate school. I love school actually. The reason I'm not looking forward to this new school is the uniforms. The blasted things are pink! Ok, not "pink" pink, but a rose-like pink. Which in my opinion is not that much better. Sinclair isn't too happy about the uniforms either. At least Gwen likes them, calling the uniforms 'cute.' She just better not call me cute when I wear the uniform.

The name of the school is Meio Academy. While the elementary school is called Fuji Elementary. No idea why it's named after Mt. Fuji. We start school tomorrow and I'm so glad that I know how to speak Japanese from Dad...otherwise things would most likely go badly.

"Alright kids lunch is ready!" That would be my mom, she's pretty cool.

The replies of my siblings and I are heard throughout the house.

"Coming!" Sinclair shouts.

"Just a sec!" yells Gwen.

"Working on it!" I holler.

"YAY, LUNCH!" Haku and Kira bellow in unison.

A few moments later all of my siblings and I come into the dining room to eat lunch. Although Haku and Kira ran into the room, while us older ones walked in at a normal pace.

"Haku, Kira." Mom says, "What have I said about running in the house?"

"To not run in the house." is the simultaneous reply by the youngest twins.

"That's right. Now, go back out of the room and then come back in while walking. Go on." They sigh and do as she says. "Alright now everyone get comfortable while I dish up lunch."

We all sat down at the table and immediately started talking.

"So what's for lunch today Mom?" Gwen asks.

"Yeah, I'm starving!" says Sinclair.

I laugh and say, "What they said."

Mom doesn't look at us as she replies. After all she's busy dishing up the food. "Lunch is spaghetti. And after lunch I want to introduce you all to Mrs. Minamino and her family."

"Who's she?" ask both sets of twins.

"She's the neighbor that lives next door to us, with her husband and two sons." I reply.

Haku looks at me and demands, "How is it that you know her and we don't?"

"Simple," I state, "yesterday when you guys went with Dad to get some lunch for everyone I saw her coming home. She was trying to get her groceries inside by herself and I offered to help. She took me up on my offer and we talked while getting the groceries inside. She wanted to meet everyone, but I told her that Dad and you guys went to grab lunch and that Mom was the only one home at the time besides myself. So I introduced her and Mom. They started talking and decided that the rest of y'all would meet her and her family tomorrow after lunch the next day. Which is now today."

"Hmph."

I roll my eyes my little brother's version of 'Fine, I get it, you win.' Seeing as how he hates to admit that to anyone in actual words. Course he's not the only one in the family. I think it's some weird genetic trait.

"Hang on a second." Gwen says, "Tell me you were wearing your contacts."

Everyone turned to look at me with that question asked.

"Yes, I was wearing my contacts. I'm not stupid you know." I reply back with a glare. It had been decided by my parents that I should start wearing colored contacts to hide my real eye color. That way I could try to fit in without people giving me shit about my eyes all the time. So now when I'm out of the house I wear brown contacts. I hate the blasted things.

"Glad you had them on. Although even if you hadn't and someone saw your real eye color and said something that upset you, I'd have beaten them up real good as punishment." Sinclair states calmly, but with a smirk on his face.

My eye twitches at him saying that. "You know that's part of why I agreed to these blasted things. To keep YOU from getting into anymore trouble." I say looking at my troublesome brother.

He smiles, "Aw, worried about me Nymph?"

I roll my eyes at the nickname that my family has for me. Gwen started it when she said that my eye color made her think of a forest nymph. Needless to say it stuck. "Of course I'm worried about you, you nitwit. What sister in her right mind wouldn't be worried about her big brother?"

"Hey! Who you calling a nitwit?" he squawks indignantly.

"Let me think. Hmm. Oh that's right! You, you nitwit."

"Don't call me a nitwit!"

"It's either nitwit or twerp. Take your pick."

"...Tch." Sinclair grunts as he looks away.

I shake my head and smile as Sinclair used his version of 'Fine, I get it, you win.'

"You gotta show me how you do that sissy." says Kira.

Confused I look at her and asked, "Do what?"

"Make our brothers give up an argument so easily without hitting them like Gwennie."

"We don't give up that easily!" yell the boys.

Gwen and I roll our eyes at our brothers' denial.

"Yes you do." says Gwen.

"Agreed." I say.

Smiling and watching all of us with amusement, Mom then says, "Alright now calm down and eat your lunch younglings. You all still need to meet the neighbors."

We all look at her and then down at the table. Yet again Mom had gotten all of our plates of food placed in front of us without any of us noticing. It's times like this that we all think that she's secretly a ninja.

We all replied to what she said before in order of Sinclair, Gwen, Kira, Haku, and me.

"Ok Mom."

"Right Mom."

"Yes Mommy."

"Sure Mom."

"Kay-da-kay."

We all finished lunch and my siblings went to get ready to meet the neighbors.

"Ayla, could you help me out with the dishes?" Mom asked me just as I was about to leave the room.

"Sure thing Mom." I replied, turning around and heading for the sink.

We worked on the dishes for a few minutes in silence. I broke it since there was something I wanted to ask her. "Hey Mom?"

"Yes?"

"...Why are my eyes so different from everyone else's?" I ask with a amount of sadness in my voice.

My mom stops cleaning the dishes to look at me. "I don't know sweetheart." she sadly says, "I know that's not the answer that you wanted. But I don't know."

I nod my head sadly. I had already figured that would be her answer since I've heard Sinclair and Gwen ask Mom that question before. I'd just needed to ask it myself for some reason.

"But you know," she started, "when you were little I first noticed..."

"Noticed what?" I say with a questioning look when she stopped.

"Well, ever since you were little you have always had a way with animals and plants."

"Mom other people have ways with those things too you know." I respond with just the tiniest bit of sarcasm in my voice.

She rolled her eyes at me, "Not like that you ninny. I mean a way with them that other people don't have. Remember that Great Dane the neighbor had when you were five? You used to play with it all the time."

"Yeah, why?" I was wondering where she was going with this.

"Well, when you played with that dog you would talk to it, like it was a person. Having conversations with it for hours sometimes. One of the times you went to play with it, it was sick. So the neighbor said that you couldn't play with it that day cause he didn't know what was wrong with it. You asked 'If I can't play with him can I talk to him?' The neighbor knowing that you would do just that since he saw you do it all the time said 'Ok, but only talk. Don't want him to get riled up.' You promised and went to the dog and started talking to it. You asked the dog how he was doing and what was wrong. Then you told the neighbor that the dog said that its' chest hurt on the left side cause it broke two ribs yesterday from when it got caught by the front door when it was closing."

"I sorta remember that. Didn't he say that I was lying?" The memory was fuzzy but it was there.

"That's right. He didn't believe you. But I told him you wouldn't lie about a person or animal being hurt. I then told him that he should take it to the vet to have its' ribs checked. He wasn't going to until your father said that if there was nothing wrong with the dog's ribs that we would pay for the vet appointment. So he took the dog to the vet and it turned out that you were absolutely right." Mom finished.

"That must have been a fluke. Seriously, I mean a person can't just say something like that and be right. After all, I'm not Dr. Doolittle." I state.

"It wasn't a fluke because you have done similar things several times since then Ayla." said a male voice from behind us.

I turned around with a yelp, "Don't startle me like that Dad!"

He chuckles while smiling.

"Hello dear, how did work go?" Mom asks.

Dad sits down at the table before answering. "It was alright. Mr. Kibito hasn't let me actually start working just yet."

"Why not Dad?" I ask.

"He wants me to start my actual work starting next week since we just moved her. So for right now he's had me getting familiarized with everything at work."

"Oh." _Oh? That's the best you can come up with as a reply? Geez, I'm lame._ I think to myself and shake my head to get my thoughts to quiet down.

I suddenly realize what my dad had said when he came into the room. "Hang on a sec. You said that I've done similar things _several_ times? And been right too?" I ask with some disbelief.

"That's right. And not just with animals." Dad answered.

"Huh?" was my oh-so-brilliant response.

Dad then started to explain what he meant. "You've also been able to know what was wrong with plants just by either glancing at them, smelling them, or touching them for a second. There's also the fact that you seem to be able to get plants to grow in any environment. Even when they're not 'supposedly' able to."

"So I have an amazing green thumb, so what?" I look back and forth between my parents confused with what they are trying to get at. Cause so far the answer is not coming to me.

"What your father and I are trying to say sweetheart is that we think your eye color might reflect your connection with nature." Mom said with a serious face.

I blink a few times while I digest that theory. _Not sure I get why they think that but it does make sense...kinda...I guess?_ "Huh...well that's one I never would have thought of before. Doesn't explain the empathy or telepathy though."

That's another thing that's gotten me into trouble before. I can hear the thoughts of the people around me. I can also, what's the best term? 'Sense' the emotions of people as well. I've learned to keep my thoughts and others' separate, so that I don't go crazy. Emotions can't be blocked out though for some reason. Hell if I know why, but the best I can do is sort of tone them down. Like closing a door to a room with loud music playing in it. You can't get rid of the noise entirely, but you can muffle it.

My parents look at each other with strange looks on their faces. _I wonder what they're thinking...I could find out but I'm not going to. I've never wanted to hear what everyone was thinking to begin with and I DEFINITELY don't want to know what goes on in my parents' minds. Might get scarred for life._ I mentally shuddered. I'd learned the hard way to not listen to people's thoughts if I didn't have to. I try my hardest not to listen in to people's thoughts unless they were going to do harm to me or my family. I mean everyone deserves privacy you know?

"Ok, what's with the looks?" I demand.

My dad looks at me about to say something when suddenly there's a yell from somewhere upstairs.

"SINCLAIR! HAKU! I'M GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU!" Gwen bellows from what I would guess to be either her room or the bathroom.

There's also some yelps from the boys, signifying that they are now running for their lives. _Great...now what have those two done to piss her off?_ The sound of running and someone (either Sinclair or Haku) having a meeting with the floor with their face.

Kira comes into the kitchen all cleaned up and ready to meet the neighbors. She hugs Dad before sitting next to him at the table.

"Hey Pixie, what did our two loveable, yet dim-witted brothers do this time?" I ask her using the nickname I came up with for her when I was dubbed Nymph.

She shrugs, "I don't know. But I do know that Gwennie was in the bathroom when she yelled at them. Are you going to look in their heads to find out what they did again?"

"Again? Ayla, what does Kira mean by again?" my father asks with a rather stern look.

I groaned, I so didn't want to explain this. "I don't do it all the time Dad. Just when I'm trying to find out who did what to whom, so that I can stop whoever had whatever done to them from killing the one or ones who did whatever to them."

Kira and Mom both giggled after I made my little speech.

_What are they laughing about?_ I raise my eyebrow while looking at them questioningly.

"You sounded just like Daddy." Kira says with a grin.

_I did?_ "Hn."

My mother rolls her eyes at my reply while my father snorts in amusement.

"So basically only when you're trying to keep your siblings from killing each other." Dad summarizes.

"Uh, yeah, basically." _I guess I'm not in trouble. Cool._

"Well then by all means go ahead and keep the peace in the house, Peacekeeper." he says with a smirk.

I sigh and shake my head. Really, I should know by now that he was gonna pull something like that. _Great, just what I wanted...ANOTHER nickname._

I then take a peek at what is going on in my brothers' and older sister's heads starting with Gwen.

_~When I get my hands on them they are so dead! They are gonna be hurting so much that they won't be able to move for days...wait. Not such a good idea, cause then I have to do their chores. ARGH! Stupid brothers! Ok, maybe I'll just hurt them enough to where they're gonna be sore for a few days.~_

_Oh yeah, that was **so** helpful._ I sarcastically thought.

I sigh and look into Sinclair's mind next.

_~Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I'm dead if she gets me. Must run to live. Shit, shit, shit.~_

I roll my eyes at Sinclair's one track mind. His thoughts were even less helpful than Gwen's. This means that Haku is my last chance of finding out what they did that ignited Gwen's wrath.

_I hope Haku is thinking about what the hell they did._ I go into his mind and find just what I'm looking for. What I hear causes me to smirk and chuckle.

_~Drat, why did I let Sinclair talk me into this? This is all HIS fault! This is the last time I help him put food coloring in her lotions!~_

"What happened and who did it?" Mom asks.

"Both Sinclair and Haku put food coloring in Gwen's lotions." I answer, shaking my head at their stupidity. _No wonder she's trying to kill them. Seeing as how she is so damn touchy about anyone messing with her makeup or skin care products._

Mom shakes her head as well and sighs as she stands up. She must have sat down while I was listening to the idiots upstairs. "Well, I better go stop her from trying to murder the boys." she says as she goes to leave the room.

"Kira why don't you go help your mother?" Dad says.

_Why did he say that?_ It wasn't like Mom _actually_ needed help.

"I can help?" she asks. She sounds just as confused as I feel.

Mom speaks from the doorway, "He's right sweetie, you can help me."

"How?"

"By being your cute, little self. All of your siblings calm down when you hug them."

"Ok, I'll come help you Mommy." Kira says as she follows Mom out of the room.

Dad watched them leave and as soon as they were out of earshot he looked back at me.

"So," I start, "what were you going to say before chaos erupted upstairs Dad?"

He sighed, "It's about your grandmother, my mother."

"What Grandma Genkai? She's not sick or anything is she?" I asked worriedly.

She was the one who helped figure out what the heck my abilities were when my parents couldn't. Not to mention train me as best she could to control them. She's one of the best psychics in the world according to Dad. That's gotta be the biggest understatement of all time. As far as I'm concerned she is THE best. I feel more connected to her than anyone else in our family since we're the only ones with abilities. Well, with strong abilities anyways. My parents and siblings just have really good sixth senses at the most.

"No, no, she's doing fine. She just wants to talk to you about some particular things that your mother and I can't." he quickly reassures me.

_What could there possibly be that Grandma Genkai wants to talk to me about? Does it have something to do with my abilities? Or is it about something else? And why did he want Kira to leave the room before he said anything? And why the hell am I only asking myself these damn questions when I should be asking Dad out loud?!_

"Like what?" _Oh that's real specific..._

"Well, you see I'm not quite sure about what exactly." Dad hedges.

"Right and I'm a normal person with no abilities and a normal eye color." I sarcastically reply.

Rolling his eyes he says, "Alright, I know what she wants to talk to you about in general, but not in detail."

I nod letting him know that he can continue.

"She wants to talk to you more about your abilities and some other things that I'm not sure of."

I raise an eyebrow at that short statement of his.

He puts his hands up to keep me from saying anything. "That's all she told me when I spoke to her on the phone this morning before I left. She wants to meet with you this weekend to talk."

I nod, "Alright, I'll go and see her this Saturday first thing in the morning." He starts to say something when I cut him off, "Don't worry I'll call her after we're done meeting the Minaminos to let her know when I'll be over there."

He nods then stands up. "Good. Now let's see if we can get the others out of the house in one piece. What do you say?"

Chuckling I say, "Sure thing Daddy."

We left the kitchen to find the rest of our happy family to go meet the neighbors.


	2. Meeting the Neighbors

_**TheHeartsPath: Sorry that I took so long to update. Had a really bad case of the flu. Please forgive me. And just to let everyone know, I don't know the name of Kurama's step-father. I've looked through both the manga and the anime and found nothing so I decided to make up a name. But if anyone knows what his real name is please let me know so that I can change it. I used the name for Kurama's step-brother from the english version of the anime. Sorry but I found it a bit confusing to have two people named Shuichi so he will be going by Kokoda. I also don't know what his step-father's last name is so all of Kurama's human family has the last name of Minamino.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 2: Meeting the Neighbors**

We finally managed to get everyone to calm down enough to leave the house so that we could meet the neighbors. Though Gwen was mumbling things like "stupid brothers," "pain," and "must hurt." Meanwhile Sinclair and Haku kept glancing at her nervously while trying to stay a few feet away. Kira was smiling and giggling at the way they were acting. Mom and Dad were up ahead of us, ignoring what was known as 'normal' behavior after what had happened earlier. I was trailing behind everyone watching my siblings with quiet amusement, wondering how in the name of anything holy, I've managed to keep my sanity. What with my siblings constantly causing chaos in one way or another. The main chaos causers being my brothers.

We got to the front door of the neighbor's house and Dad pushed the doorbell.

Mom turned to us, giving us 'the look.' You know the one that says 'I'm dead serious so you better be listening.' "Try to not get into a fight with each other while we're here ok? After all, you kids do tend to get a bit rough." she says smiling at the end.

"Me and Kira will be fine. It's Gwen, Sin, and Haku that have to try." I say with a small smirk. This of course earned me glares from said siblings.

"Watch it Nymph." Sinclair says.

I roll my eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

I felt a strange energy coming closer and I realize that it was coming from inside the house. _Odd, wonder what it could be?_

The door opens and I have to blink to make sure I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing. Which happens to be a guy with the brightest red hair and emerald green eyes that I have ever seen. _Is the weird energy coming from him?_ I focus for a second and realize it is from him. _Maybe he's like me? Or at least similar? Guess I'll find out when I find out. One thing's for sure, he's definitely handsome. Though in a pretty boy way._

I mentally groan. _Which means Gwen is so gonna fall for him._ Glancing over at my sister I have my guess proved right. Seeing as Gwen's eyes are looking at him like she'd like to eat him up. _Knew it. I just hope her heart doesn't get broken again. I'll have to find out if he's got any brains in that head of his, not to mention a heart, or if he's all looks. Also need to find out if he's a danger or not. I hope I'm not just being overly paranoid._

As the guy starts to talk I look back at him. "Hello, I take it you are our new neighbors? We've been expecting you. Please, do come in and relax."

_Wow...Never thought I'd hear a teenage guy speak so politely. Sinclair should take lessons from this guy._ I thought with a chuckle.

"Thank you, we'd love to come in." Dad replies.

We all head into the house to what I guess would be the living room. It's real nice with a couch, love seat, a couple of cushioned chairs, coffee table, and a couple of small tables by the walls with flowers and pictures on them.

"Wow! Look at the pretty flowers Mommy and Daddy!" Kira says with a really big grin on her face. She runs over to get a closer look at them.

"I'm so glad you think they are pretty little one." says a female voice. Since I've heard it before I immediately identify it as Shiori Minamino. "Welcome everyone. I'm Shiori. Please make yourselves comfortable while I get my husband and our youngest son."

"I'll go and get them Mother." says the red head.

"Alright, thank you Shuichi." Shiori says while smiling.

"I'll be back in just a moment." says the now known named Shuichi.

As he heads out of the room the rest of us get settled. With our parents on the love seat with Kira and Haku since they are small in size, and Gwen and Sinclair on the couch. I decide to sit on the floor near the wall, wishing there was a window that I could sit at instead. I find it to be very soothing and relaxing when I'm around a lot of people. Especially when I'm around people I don't know that well. I guess a part of me wants to be near a possible escape route or something.

Just as everyone had gotten sat down Shiori's husband and sons came into the room. "Sorry we weren't in the room when you got here. I had to replace the lightbulb in the hallway, it blew just before you all got here. I'm Takaro, Shiori's husband." said Takaro. He was around six foot with brown hair and eyes with glasses. "You've already met Shiori, so I'll introduce the boys. The one with red haid is Shuichi and the one with brown haid is Kokoda."

"Hey everyone." Kokoda greeted.

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet all of you." Shuichi politely says.

_Geez, his speech is so polite it's a little unnerving. Should I check out what he's thinking? No, I don't want to do that. Guess I should at least see what his emotions are though._

I crack open what I refer to as the 'Heart's Door' so that I can 'hear' what is in his heart. Everyone has one even if they say that they don't have a heart. Also when I say 'hear' it's not actual words that I hear like with a person's thoughts. It's more like, hearing a melody. Every emotion has a certain rhythm, with variations not only for each emotion, but also for each person. Thus, I refer to what I 'hear' from a person's heart as their 'Heart's Song.'

I listen to what is in Shuichi's heart. Finding a strong familial love for his mother, father, and brother. I also sense the welcome that's there for us. And something else...something that caught my attention and held it.

_Well, well, well, isn't this interesting?_ I glance between Shuichi and Gwen a few times. Who are sitting next to each other on the couch, and end up looking at Shuichi in the end. _He's attracted to Gwen already? I have to say that was unexpected. I'll definitely have to keep an eye on him now and find out what his intentions are towards Gwen. Not to mention give him a proper warning._ I smile to myself thinking about what his possible reactions could be to me basically threatening him if he harms Gwen.

I shut the Heart's Door and focused on what my mother was saying. "We're happy to meet all of you as well. I'm Natala."

"I'm her husband, Aya." Dad said, "And these are our kids starting from the oldest to youngest. Gwen has the brown hair and blue eyes."

"Nice to meet you." Gwen says with a smile.

"Sinclair is the other one with brown hair and blue eyes. He and Gwen are twins." Dad continued.

Sinclair nodded his head in greeting, "Hello."

"Next is Ayla with the auburn hair and brown eyes. Who seems to be hiding by the wall." my father says with a chuckle.

"I'm not hiding. I just didn't want to take up more of the couch so that no one else could sit there. Not to mention the fact that you know I prefer the floor or a window to a chair or couch." I state with a small glare at my father.

"Ayla tends to be wary around people she doesn't know I'm afraid." Mom said.

"I was wondering why you were sitting over there dear. You seemed fine being near me yesterday when we met." Shiori said a bit sadly.

I looked towards the floor, biting my lip a little before replying. "That's because it was just you, just one person, not a bunch."

"I see, it's the number of people that you don't know well that bothers you is it not?" Shuichi asked.

"Yeah. It's nothing personal."

Shiori smiled at me gently and said, "We do have a window seat that you could sit at if it'll make you more comfortable around us."

I blinked at her, "You do? Where?" _I don't see a window anywhere._

Shuichi got up and walked across the room over to what I realize is a curtain. _Well now I feel just a little dumb for not noticing the curtain._ He pulls the curtain to the side to reveal a window seat that has three windows set at angles from each other. Giving a better view of outside than it would if there was only one window.

"Wow, now that's what I call a perfect window seat." I say with a big grin.

He smiles with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "I believe a friend of mine would agree with you on that. As Mother said, if it'll make you more comfortable with us, please sit here."

"Thank you very much." I get up and go over to the window and sit while he goes back over to the couch to sit with his brother and my older siblings.

"Couldn't wait to find a window huh sis?" says Haku teasingly.

"Oh hush." I reply back.

Kira giggles, "Ayla is shy with new people."

"I'm not shy. I just don't have the best of luck with people." I retort.

"Right, keep telling yourself that sis." Haku sarcastically remarks.

I glare at my younger siblings while saying to the Minamino family, "And the two little ones with black hair and green eyes are Haku and Kira. Haku being older making Kira the baby of the family. They are twins and little twerps, just to warn y'all."

"HEY!" said twins yelled indignantly.

Everyone started laughing.

After all the introductions had been made the small talk commenced. Things like, 'what was it like in America,' 'what do you think of Japan so far,' and other things similar were talked about. It turned out that both Dad and Takaro work at the same electronics company.

This went on for a few hours, then Kokoda asked, "So where are you guys going to school?"

"Me and Kira are gonna go to Fuji Elementary." Haku replies.

"Yeah, I can't wait to get back to school!" Kira happily says while bouncing on Mom's lap.

"Cool that's where I used to go." Kokoda said.

"As did I." Shuichi added. "What about you three? If you don't mind my asking that is." he then asked.

Gwen and Sinclair answered in twin fashion, "Meio Academy. We're seniors."

"Same, but as a junior." I said raising my hand for a second.

"Really? That's where Shuichi used to go." Shiori says, "Kokoda currently goes there, also as a junior."

I smirk, "Guess I'll know at least one person in my grade then."

"Cool, you can keep an eye on her Kokoda, and make sure she stays out of trouble." Sinclair laughs.

"I don't need a keeper Sinclair, that would be you." I snip at him with a glare.

"Who says?" he glares back.

"Me."

He growls and I smirk at his 'civilized' retort.

Mom sighs, "Ayla, please stop antagonizing your brother."

"Alright. It was fun while it lasted." I pout.

Both Gwen and Kira giggled at my remark while Haku and Kokoda snickered. Shuichi merely hid his smile behind his hand. And Sinclair, well, he acted like the nitwit he is grumbling, "Dratted Nymph."

"Oh my!" Shiori exclaimed, "It's already seven-thirty! Why don't you all stay for dinner seeing how late it is and all?"

"We'd love to stay for dinner. But since there are so many of us I'd like to help cook. If it's alright with you, since it is your kitchen." Mom replies.

Shiori smiles, "I'd be happy to have your help."

"Oh dear." I groan.

"What's wrong?" Shuichi asks with a worried look. His question having everyone turn to look at me.

"Nothing is wrong exactly. It's just that two mothers in the same kitchen, cooking together can only mean one thing." I cryptically reply.

"And what would that be?" Kokoda asks.

I look at everyone, "They're going to talk about all our most embarrassing moments, little quirks, habits, hobbies, and everything else our mothers know about us."

The kids all groan, with the exception of Shuichi, who just blushed with embarrassement. Meanwhile the parents reacted just as I expected them to. By bursting out into laughter.

Once everyone settled down the moms went into the kitchen with Gwen who offered to help cook too. I knew she wanted to make sure Mom didn't talk about certain embarrassing things and to also find out some stuff about Shuichi. Kira went with them cause she wanted to watch them cook cause as she put it, "'I want to know how to be able to cook all kinds of things when I'm older.'" The dads went to Takaro's study/library to talk about work or something. The boys (meaning Kokoda, Sinclair, and Haku), went to play video games in the den. I had decided to stay at the window in the living room. Shuichi was there too, watching the boys run off.

"Not into cooking or video games?" Shuichi asked me.

"It's not that." I reply.

"Oh?"

I sigh, "I'm not that good of a cook, so I'd be more of a hinderance than a help. Unless they need something baked though. I can bake all kinds of cookies, cakes, pies, and pastries. And I don't want to have to fight for a controller to a game system, or get fussed at by the boys if I beat them in the game."

He chuckles, "Well then would you like to read a book? I have some in my room if you'd like to."

"Got any history or mythology?"

He raises an eyebrow at my question. "Actually, yes I do."

"Cool. And yeah I know I'm weird." I say.

Blinking at my statement for a moment he asks, "Why did you say that?"

"Cause of the look you gave me. You weren't expecting me to ask about those type of books were you now?" I respond, raising an eyebrow of my own.

"Sorry, it's just that most girls your age that I know aren't that interested in books like that. They like ones that are...well..." he trailed off.

"Romance-y?" I offer.

"Exactly."

"Well just to give you fair warning, I'm not most girls. And," I decided to add with a smirk, "neither is Gwen."

The rather startled look on his face was so amusing that I couldn't help but laugh. "I noticed right away how you were looking at her, so don't think you can fool me."

"I didn't realize that I was being that obvious." he replied sheepishly.

My hesitation only lasted for a few seconds before I decided that I would tell Shuichi about myself and abilities. I knew from his Heart's Song that he could be trusted.

"You weren't."

He gives me a quizzical look, "Then how is it you noticed, if I wasn't being that obvious?"

I look towards the kitchen and then the room that the boys had gone to before looking back at Shuichi. "How 'bout I explain in your room? I kinda don't want to be overheard."

Nodding he says, "Alright, follow me."

We head upstairs and he opens the door to his room, allowing me to enter first. I look around the room. _Damn, polite and organized. Sinclair definitely needs to take lessons from Shuichi._ His room was spotless, like it was just moved into. "Nice room. Gotta say, not what I was expecting from a guy your age." I bluntly say. "Uh...I'm not saying that I thought you would be a slob or anything just..."

He laughs as he sat down on the chair at his desk. "Just thought there might be at least one piece of dirty clothing on the floor or something?"

I laugh nervously. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that." I apologized as I sat at the window in his room.

"It's alright. My friends find it strange as well. Now, what was it that you didn't want to be overheard?"

"Well you see, I can sense that you're different. Not a bad different, just different from what most people consider normal." I say in a rush while looking straight at him.

His eyes widen at what I said, then they sorta 'cooled off.' I knew what he was doing. He was keeping his emotions off his face and out of his eyes. "I see." was all he said in a slightly cold voice.

I could have sworn I even saw his eyes change color to gold for just a second. But that could have just been the way the light was hitting his eyes.

"Look I know what you're thinking and no I'm not a threat to you or your family. At least as long as you aren't one to me or mine." I continued to talk.

He stared at me for a minute without saying anything.

_Ok...this is getting to be a bit annoying._ I sighed, "Look I'm a telepath and empath, that's how I knew about your attraction to Gwen." I suddenly realized how he might take that and hurriedly said, "I didn't listen into your thoughts, just your emotions."

"You're an empath? You're sure?" he asked me in a disbelieving voice.

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, I'm sure. Hell my grandmother is the one that confirmed it."

"Your grandmother?"

"Yeah, my dad's mom. She lives here in Japan, in a really big temple outside of town. She's a psychic, her name is Genkai. You may or may not have heard of her." I explained.

"Interesting." he said so quietly that I almost didn't hear him.

He didn't say anything for several minutes. I guessed that he was going over what I had told him. Trying to decide whether it was true or not.

"Look you don't have to believe me if you don't want to ok? That was only the second reason I wanted to talk to you alone." I said.

My saying that seem to help him come out of his thoughts. "Then what was it you truly wanted to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Gwen." I stated in my most serious tone.

He sat up straighter in his desk chair. I definitely had his attention now. "Go on." he says.

"I don't care if you like her, want to date her, or fall in love with her. But," I stare at him hard in the eyes and say in a voice devoid of all emotion, "if you ever, EVER, hurt her, in anyway whatsoever, I will hunt you down and make you wish for death."

For a few minutes he stared at me before speaking, "I understand."

I nod then look at his bookshelf that is filled from floor to ceiling with tons of books on tons of different subjects.

"Just one question." he says.

I turn back to him with an eyebrow raised.

"Isn't it usually the brother or father that gives the death threats when someone has an interest in their sister or daughter?" he says with a small smile.

I can see that glimmer of amusement in his eyes and I smirk. "Usually, yes. But they haven't realized your attraction to her yet. They will eventually and that is when you'll get their death threats." I say with a laugh.

"Aren't you going to ask me what my intentions are towards Gwen?" he asks.

"No."

He gets a confused look on his face and I grin mischievously. "You're going to tell me without me asking. Because otherwise you won't be getting near her."

An amused smile appears on his face. "For now my only intention is to get to know her better, seeing as how we have only just met."

I nod waiting for him to continue.

"After I've gotten to know her better I'll tell you my intentions from there."

"Good enough. Even though I've only known you for a few hours I can tell you're a good guy. I want you to know that Gwen's been hurt badly before and that's why I wanted to talk to you so soon." I explain.

He nodded in understanding. "I have absolutely no intentions of hurting her." he promised.

The corner of my mouth twitched. "I wouldn't have let you even sit next to her earlier if you had."

He smiles at my obvious protectiveness of my family.

"Hey Shuichi?"

"Hm?"

"You do realize that you have a visitor in the tree outside your window right?"

His eyes widen considerably. "You sensed him?"

"Yep, guess he's a friend of yours?"

"Yes he is. If you move out of the way he can come in."

"Huh? Oh. Right. The window's the only way in." I laugh at my airhead moment.

I get up and go sit on Shuichi's bed as he opens the window and says, "Come on in Hiei." _Hiei huh? Wonder what he looks like?_

I didn't have to wait long to have my curiosity sated. Shuichi walked back to his desk while his friend Hiei jumped in through the window and stood near it. Shuichi sat down while I stared at the guy in front of me. I didn't mean to stare but I just couldn't help it. And the longer I stared the more my heart raced. I was probably blushing too, but I couldn't be sure since I was kind of distracted at the time.

It was easy to see that he was shorter than me by a few inches. I was betting he wasn't even five foot. Although with his hair he was probably taller, but that didn't count. He was dressed in black from top to bottom with a white bandanna on his forehead. His hair was that type of black that when the light hits it just right it has a blue sheen. There was a white star burst in his hair right above the bandanna. _The way his hair stands up makes me think of a flame. Granted a black flame, but a flame none the less._

Then I got a look at his face. _Damn he's even more handsome than Shuichi. But in that rugged, bad boy, don't fuck with me or I'll kill you kind of way._ His face was definitely more masculine than Shuichi's by a long shot. And his eyes...they were the most amazing eyes I had ever seen. _I've never seen a person with crimson eyes before. I've gotta say, it's not what the people back in America would call 'normal.'_ I shook my head to get rid of that particular thought.

_Damn, being that good looking should be against the law. As well as having eyes that beautiful. Hell, he's the perfect example of a woman's fantasy of a guy that just screams dangerous...I wonder what he looks like without a shirt on._I blinked at that last thought and shake my head, while slapping myself muttering, "Stop that Ayla."

I heard chuckling and looked over at Shuichi, whom it was coming from. "Something funny?" I asked, assuming it was about me slapping myself that he was laughing at.

"Just a little amused at your reaction and what you thought of Hiei." he replied.

My eyes widened, "What do you mean what I thought? You're not a telepath too are you?"

"No, no, I'm not. Hiei is though."

I quickly looked at Hiei, who was smirking. I opened my mouth to talk and ended up closing it when he said, "I didn't listen to your thoughts onna." My right eye twitched at being called 'woman.' "You said what you were thinking quite clearly even though you were mumbling."

It took a second to register in my mind what he meant. "Ah shit. How much did I actually say out loud?" I groaned. Somehow I hadn't realized I was saying part of what I was thinking out loud. _How the hell did I manage that? Oh yeah, I was severely distracted by Hiei's looks._

"Only from what you said about 'being good looking being against the law,' all the way to when you slapped yourself and saying 'stop that' to yourself."

I blushed and looked away so fast I thought my head was gonna snap off. Needless to say this caused both of them to chuckle.

I cleared my throat, "Well I doubt that Hiei would just be sitting in that tree outside your window without wanting to talk to you about something important Shuichi. So, um, I'm just gonna go back downstairs to the living room and wait for dinner to be done. Have fun chatting." I started to head out of the room at a fast walk. Just as I reached for the doorknob Hiei said something that made me stop in my tracks.

"Afraid to stay in the same room with a 'dangerous' man?" he asked in a smug tone.

I turned around looking at him and said completely serious, without blushing at all amazingly enough, "No, I'm just embarrassed. Besides, I doubt you'd want someone in the same room while you talked to Shuichi about whatever it is you want to talk to him about. So I'm giving you guys privacy to chat."

He blinked, as if not expecting me to say something like that to him.

I turned back to the door to leave.

"Ayla." Shuichi said.

"Yeah?" I turned to Shuichi.

"Don't forget a book to read." he smiles at me.

I blink a couple of times, "Oh...oops. Forgot about that."

I sensed Hiei's anger spike but it vanished just as quickly as it came. _Ok, that was weird. Why'd he get angry? Oh well, I'll just get a book and vamoose so I don't embarrass myself more._

I went over to the bookshelf, looked at what there was, and grabbed a book on Japanese mythology. _Cool, I've never read this one._

"If you don't own that book you can borrow it." offers Shuichi.

"Really?" I perk up at that. I caught sight of Hiei smirking out of the corner of my eye. _Guess he's amused at my reaction about borrowing the book._

He chuckles, "Yes really."

"Awesome. Thanks, I'll take good care of it." I say, happiness evident in my voice. I go to the door, open it saying, "I'll come and let you know when dinner is done kay?"

"Alright, thank you Ayla."

"No need to thank me. It's the least I can do since you're letting me borrow this cool book. Enjoy your talk guys." I close the door, heading to the living room to start reading. I sit down at the window and open up the book.

I hadn't read very far when I heard the boys squabbling in the next room. I sigh closing the book. _I better go make sure that nothing gets broken by the boys._ I get up and go to where the squabbling is coming from. Hoping that dinner will be done soon so that the boys' chaos can stop, if only for a bit.


	3. Conversations

_**TheHeartsPath: Time for the third chapter! Sorry if Hiei is a bit out of character. Hope y'all like it! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 3: Conversations**

Hiei's POV

I had sensed someone with unusual energy near Kurama's human home a few days ago. The energy was different from most humans so I had decided to keep an eye out. To see if there was a threat or not. I had discovered last night that it was the girl that the unusual energy was coming from. I had left earlier today to check on Yukina at the temle and to make sure that fool Kuwabara didn't try anything. So by the time I got back to Kurama's it was evening and the human family that had moved into the house next to his was visiting.

I discovered that the fox had taken the girl with the strange energy to his room. So I waited in the tree outside his window, listening to their conversation with the Jagan. I didn't know how long they had been talking since I had only arrived while she was threatening Kurama if he hurt someone named Gwen.

She sensed me while I was outside waiting for Kurama to be alone. That was surprising considering not many humans can sense me unless I let them. She moved away from the window and Kurama came into view. He opened the window saying, "Come on in Hiei." I jumped from the tree in which I had been sitting into Kurama's room and stayed standing near the window.

I hadn't gotten a good look at this human female when I first arrived outside Kurama's house. So now that I was in the same room I was able to get a better look at her appearance. Her hair was an auburn color that made me think of sunrises and sunsets. It was cut short which I found surprising seeing as how most females are obsessed with their hair. _Maybe she practices martial arts and that's why it's cut short._

Freckles covered her face, but not so many that she looked diseased. She had glasses that were small so that they didn't take up her face. Brown eyes were behind the glasses. I could tell that wasn't her natural eye color and that she was wearing those 'colored contacts' that humans seem to be fond of. _Why is she hiding her real eye color? Humans, never happy with what they are given._ From what I could tell she was taller than me, but only by a few inches.

What she was wearing surprised me, since it wasn't something that anyone would consider flattering. She was wearing blue jeans and a blue t-shirt, both of which were rather loose so her figure couldn't be easily discerned. I found this confusing since females, whether demon or human, are always trying to attract males by wearing clothing that is revealing._ She doesn't care about her looks so she wears loose clothing? Yet she cares about her eye color enough to hide the real color. Makes no sense._

I noticed that she was blushing enough to rival Kurama's hair. _What the hell is making her blush like that?_ I wondered. It was then I realized that she was looking me over just as I had been her. _So I'm the reason she's blushing. Interesting._ She shook her head and started mumbling as she stared at me and I couldn't help but smirk. "Damn, being that good looking should be against the law. As well as having eyes that beautiful. Hell, he's the perfect example of a woman's fantasy of a guy that just screams dangerous...I wonder what he looks like without a shirt on." She blinked and shook her head and did something that surprised me. She slapped herself saying, "Stop that Ayla."

Kurama was chuckling at this point and I was still smirking at what this girl had said out loud without realizing it.

She looked at the fox. "Something funny?" she asked.

I could tell Kurama was having a hard time containing his amusement. "Just a little amused at your reaction and what you thought of Hiei." Kurama replied.

With her eyes widening she asked in a startled tone, "What do you mean what I thought? You're not a telepath too are you?" _What does she mean by too? Does she know someone else who is a telepath?_

"No, no, I'm not. Hiei is though."

She turned to me and started to say something but I cut her off, "I didn't listen to your thoughts onna." Her right eye twitched, my guess was she didn't like being referred to as 'woman.' "You said what you were thinking quite clearly even though you were mumbling." I said with a smirk.

She realized what I said and groaned, "Ah shit. How much did I actually say out loud?"

"Only from what you said about 'being good looking being against the law,' all the way to when you slapped yourself and saying 'stop that' to yourself." I replied taking great pleasure in her embarrassment.

She blushed and looked away from me and Kurama rather quickly. I couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction and neither could the fox. _It's so easy to embarrass her and her reactions are amusing._

She cleared her throat, distracting me from my thoughts. "Well I doubt Hiei would just be sitting in that tree outside your window without wanting to talk to you about something important Shuichi." _So she only knows Kurama's human name, not his demon one._ "So, um, I'm just gonna go back downstairs to the living room and wait for dinner to be done. Have fun chatting." she said all of this quickly before walking to the door at a fast pace.

Just as she reached for the doorknob, I couldn't help but ask in a smug tone, "Afraid to stay in the same room with a 'dangerous' man?"

She stopped and looked at me, speaking in a serious tone that I had not expected from her. "No, I'm just embarrassed. Besides, I doubt you'd want someone in the same room while you talked to Shuichi about whatever it is you want to talk to him about. So I'm giving you guys some privacy to chat."

I could only blink at her. She had surprised me again. This time with what she had said. _She looked right at me and said that without blushing. How the hell can she be utterly embarrassed one moment and completely serious the next? This human female is strange...in more ways than one._

Again she started to leave the room, but Kurama called after her, "Ayla."

"Yeah?" she replied, looking at the fox.

"Don't forget a book to read." he said with a smile.

I suddenly felt angry with Kurama in a way I never had before when he smiled at her. _What the hell is wrong with me?_ I thought pushing it away to figure out at another time.

Blinking for a moment or two she then spoke, "Oh...oops. Forgot about that." _Great she's absent minded too, just like the oaf and the detective._

She walked over to the bookshelf, looking over what was there quickly. Her eyes lit up when one caught her attention. I raised an eyebrow at her choice. _Japanese Mythology? So she's not a total idiot like most humans._

"If you don't own that book you can borrow it." Kurama told her.

"Really?" she asked excitedly.

I smirked, I couldn't help but be slightly amused at her reaction to Kurama's offer. _She must like books almost as much as the fox to get that excited over one._

Chuckling Kurama replied, "Yes really."

"Awesome! Thanks, I'll take good care of it." she said going to the door and opening it. "I'll come let you know when dinner is done kay?"

"Alright, thank you Ayla."

"No need to thank me. It's the least I can do since you're letting me borrow this cool book. Enjoy your talk guys." she said closing the door and heading downstairs.

After watching the strange, human girl close the door I couldn't help the urge to find out more about her. _Something must be wrong with me if I'm wanting to know more about a simple human female._ That wasn't true. I'd only spoken to her for a few moments and could easily tell that there was _nothing_ simple about her. I turned back to Kurama. "Why the hell are there so many people in your house and why was that girl in your room?" I demanded.

"All those people are my new neighbors, who my mother wanted us to meet. And _Ayla_ was in my room to get a book and talk to me about a couple of things." the fox calmly replied still looking towards the door.

I noticed he had put emphasis on her name. _Ayla...that's different and beautiful._ I mentally slapped myself for thinking such a thing about a human's name and scowled. "What things?"

"Mostly about my attraction to her older sister." he answered.

I growled, "That's only one thing fox. You said she wanted to talk to you about a couple things NOT just one."

Kurama turned to me with a serious look in his eyes. "She also wanted to talk to me about the fact that she knew that I was different from normal humans."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the door which she had left through not that long ago. _They must have talked about that before I got here._ "Do you consider her a threat?"

"No."

Turning back to Kurama I ask, "And why the hell not?"

He turned away from me and looked at the door. "Honestly I don't know. I just know that she can be trusted."

"Hn. You know better than to trust someone so quickly when you have no reason to."

"Actually I do have a reason to trust her."

"Really and what would that reason be Kurama?"

He turned back to me, "She told me her abilities, at least two of them anyways. I happen to find the particular combination of her abilities quite interesting."

When Kurama uses the word 'interesting' it could mean anything. "How interesting?"

"Interesting enough to want to speak to Koenma about it."

I raised an eyebrow at that. After all, if Kurama wanted to talk to the infant prince of the Reikai it had to be extremely important. "Hn. What kind of abilities could a simple, human female have that would make you want to talk to the infant?"

Looking me in the eye Kurama said, "She is both a telepath and an empath Hiei."

My eyes widened considerably. _That's impossible! There's no way that she could be one of them. She's completely human, at least she seems to be. Also the fact that that race was wiped out 5,000 years ago._ "She can't have both Kurama. You know as well as I do that it's not possible anymore. Especially for a human." I stated.

"I know that Hiei. But she said her grandmother confirmed what her abilities were."

"So what? Her grandmother is probably some human with no actual knowledge about anything." I sneered.

"You wouldn't think that if you knew who she said her grandmother is." the fox retorted.

"Try me." I smirked.

"Her grandmother is Genkai." he said calmly.

I blinked, I had not been expecting that.

"Now you see why I plan on speaking with Koenma as soon as possible. Not to mention Genkai as well."

I nod, acknowledging what he had said. _How is this even possible? The few humans that have only one of those abilities go insane. Especially those with the empathic powers. And yet this girl has both and managed to keep her sanity from what I can tell. Hn, guess she's not just a 'simple' human after all._ I thought while looking at the door again.

Kurama's POV

There are times where even I have trouble sensing Hiei, so I was quite surprised when Ayla said that she sensed him outside. After Hiei had come inside I noticed something that I had not expected in the least. Both of them stared at each other as if they were memorizing what the other looked like. Which they probably were. I was also highly amused by Ayla's reaction and mumblings on what she thought of Hiei. From my perspective I could tell Hiei was amused as well, though in a different way from myself. Since she was unknowingly stroking Hiei's ego with her words.

She was quite obviously embarrassed by what had occurred and tried to leave in a way that was fast yet not rude. And when Hiei had asked her that question about being in the same room as a 'dangerous' man, I was taken aback. Seeing as how it is not in Hiei's nature to tease people. At least not in the playful way that he was teasing her. Usually if Hiei 'teases' you he's insulting you, like he does with Kuwabara. When she spoke back to him in that serious tone, without blushing, to Hiei I was surprised and amused by Hiei's reaction. Not many people speak to him like that without getting injured. And from the look on his face he probably wasn't sure what he should do.

As she started to leave the room again I realized she had completely forgotten to get a book to read. _Probably because she's so intent on leaving the room without trying to embarrass herself more._ I mentioned her getting a book while smiling at her. I sensed Hiei tense for a moment before relaxing again. _Well that was interesting._ After a few moments she went to the shelf, her eyes lighting up when she spotted a book that caught her attention. She was quite happy about my letting her borrow the book. Meanwhile Hiei was watching her, amused by her reaction to my offer to let her borrow it.

After she had left the room I noticed Hiei staring at the door longer than necessary. _He is definitely interested in her, though I doubt he'd acknowledge it._ I was ready for the 'interrogation' that I knew Hiei would start. I knew he was annoyed that I put emphasis on Ayla's name, but I didn't like the fact that he referred to her as 'girl.' He also wasn't pleased with me for not considering Ayla to be a threat when I told him about her knowing that I wasn't a normal human.

I had his attention when I mentioned that I wanted to speak with Koenma about her and her abilities. He was completely thrown when I told him what her abilities were. I had been stunned myself to say the least. I was equally stunned when she had said that her grandmother was Genkai. Hiei wasn't much better. After that he seemed to go into deep thought while looking at the door.

I couldn't help but wonder what it was Hiei was thinking about. _He obviously found Ayla's embarrassment amusing, otherwise he wouldn't have tried to tease her about calling him a 'dangerous' man. She also confuses him with how she went from being embarrassed to being serious in just a few moments._ Hiei kept alternating between scowling at the door and looking completely, for lack of a better word, stumped. _He's going to be keeping an eye on her, I know it. Both her abilities and her personality have caught his attention._

I smiled to myself when Hiei let out a rather frustrated growl, still looking towards the door. _Oh yes, she's an enigma to Hiei alright and he won't rest until he's figured her out. If only so he won't have to think about a human female anymore than he deems necessary._ I thought that last part chuckling.

"Find something amusing fox?" Hiei asked while glaring at me.

Shaking my head I reply, "No, nothing at all Hiei."

"Hn."

From downstairs we heard several male voices ask some questions.

"When is dinner gonna be done?"

"Yeah we're starving!"

"Dinner will be done in about thirty minutes boys! So please be patient." my mother said.

The noise died down then suddenly there was yelling.

"Hey, it's my turn to play against Kokoda, Sinclair!"

"No it's not Haku! It's still my turn!"

I shook my head, "Looks like Ayla's brothers are starting to get rowdy downstairs."

"Hn. They're too noisy. Just like Yusuke and that idiot Kuwabara." Hiei said.

I was about to say something else but the boys got even louder.

"Give me the controller Haku! It's still my turn!" Sinclair yelled again.

"No it's my turn and you know it!" retorted Haku loudly.

Kokoda started getting loud now too, "Guys, stop fighting over the controller! You're gonna break it!"

"No we're not!" the other two said at the same time. After that all we could hear was bickering but couldn't make out any of the words.

"BE QUIET, YOU ANNOYING, OBNOXIOUS, IRRITATING, DIMWITTED, IDIOTIC, MORONIC, DAT-BLASTED, CURSED, TWO YEAR OLDS IN PRE-TEEN AND TEENAGE BODIES! OR ELSE I'M GONNA KNOCK ALL THREE OF YOU THROUGH THE WALLS AND INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY! BECAUSE IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO ENJOY A GOOD BOOK AND DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO Y'ALL ACT LIKE COMPLETE AND UTTER IDIOTS!"

I knew that I probably looked ridiculous just then after hearing Ayla yell all of that. My mouth had fallen open and my eyes had widened as far as they could go. _Note to self: Never annoy Ayla when she's trying to read._ I couldn't help but think that. It was then I noticed that all noise had ceased from the boys. Part of me was stunned by her way of getting them to behave and part of me was impressed. _If she ever meets Yusuke or Kuwabara she'll be able to handle them just fine. Though I'm not sure they'll be fine._ I thought with a chuckle that seemed to have an echo. _Wait a minute. An echo?_

Looking around the room I noticed that Hiei was sitting at the window bent over and shaking. "Hiei?" I asked worriedly. "Hiei, are you alright?"

"I, I'm f-fine K-K-Kurama." he answered.

"Really? Then why are you stuttering?"

"I'm n-not st-stuttering f-fox."

I didn't believe him and was about to say so when I heard a snort. Now I knew what was going on with Hiei. He was laughing. Needless to say I was completely shocked. _He's laughing. Hiei is actually laughing._ I smiled when Hiei finally wasn't able to hold his laughter in and started laughing out loud.

_She surprised him again. And this time she wasn't even in the same room as him. This is certainly interesting._ Hiei was so caught up in his laughter that he didn't hear the knock on the door or notice me answer it.

"Hey Shuichi, you and Hiei done talking?" Ayla asked.

"Yes we're done. I assume that you wish to get away from the three downstairss?" I ask with amusement.

She grimaced, "Yeah, so can I chill with you guys?"

"Sure, come in."

She took a few steps into the room and stopped when she noticed Hiei bent over laughing. She was surprised at first then asked, with embarrassment evident n her voice, "So I take it that means you found my, uh, outburst, rather amusing?"

Hiei's head snapped up, he sat up and stopped laughing. "Hn. So what if I did? You have a problem?"

She shrugged, "No, no problem with it at all. I'm just a little surprised that you found what I did, stupid as it was, amusing."

I had sat back down at my desk while they talked. She sat down on my bed like she had earlier.

"By the way Hiei." she said.

"What onna?"

She looked at him, "You should laugh more."

"And why is that?"

"Cause you have a nice laugh." she smiled.

Hiei blinked at her and I saw a small amount of pink on his cheeks before he looked out the window. "Hn."

I watched the two of them with amusement. _Hiei rarely talks this much, even with me. And yet he doesn't even realize how much he's talking to Ayla, whom he just met._

"Ayla." she suddenly said.

Hiei and I looked at her confused.

"Ayla. My name is Ayla, not onna. I know that you know my name so quit acting like you don't." she stated looking him straight in the eyes.

For a second Hiei looked stunned before regaining his stoic facade. "Hn."

Her right eye twitched at his response. _Oh dear, this could be bad. I think she's starting to get annoyed with Hiei._

She stood up, walked over to Hiei, and then bent over just enough to be able to get right in his face. "Question for you Hiei." she says, "Do you have a problem pronouncing my name or are you just being an ass for the hell of it?"

Hiei glared at her. _Oh great, now Hiei's getting annoyed. This just keeps getting better and better._

"It's nothing personal Ayla. Hiei is like that with everyone he meets." I said trying to defuse the situation before anything really bad happened.

"Thank you for answering _Hiei_." Ayla sarcastically said while glaring at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Hn. What he said is true. I only call those that have earned my respect by their name. Which is only a few." Hiei told her.

She surprised both of us when she smirked. "I like the way you think. I don't know how long it'll take, but I'm sure as hell gonna make sure I earn your respect. One way or another."

"You are the most confusing female I've ever met." Hiei stated. I didn't know if he meant to say that out loud or not. But I was betting he hadn't.

"Thanks." Ayla replied while sitting back down.

"That wasn't meant as a complement onna."

"Yeah I know, but I'm taking it as one anyways."

Hiei just stared at her.

I shook my head, "Dinner should be ready soon I think."

"Yeah, probably. Oh, I found out what dessert will be." Ayla announced.

"Oh?" I reply.

"Yeah, it's gonna be ice cream."

Hiei perked up at this and Ayla noticed. "You like ice cream Hiei?"

"Sweet snow is one of the few things I like." he replied.

"Sweet snow? That's what you call ice cream?" She got a thoughtful look on her face then smiled. "I like that. Sounds a hell of alot better than ice cream."

Hiei smirked and I smiled. "I'll try to save some Hiei for you to have later." I said.

"Try is gonna be the operative word there." Ayla said with a cringe.

"Why do you say that Ayla?" I asked.

"I don't know about your brother but, I know that my two are pigs when it comes to ice cr- I mean sweet snow. So saving any is gonna be tough."

I frown sadly and sigh, "Kokoda's the same way unfortunately."

She looked over towards Hiei, who's looking rather annoyed about the possibility of not getting any sweet snow. "Hey, don't worry Hiei." she says.

He looks at her questioningly.

"Well you see, I happen to have a small fridge and freezer in my bedroom to keep my siblings away from my food. And I just so happen to have some sweet snow that I'd be willing to share."

Hiei smirked, "Got any chocolate fudge brownie?"

She grinned, "I'd have to be crazy not to have that flavor. My room is where the attic would be and there's a tree right outside my window. So come over later tonight and I'll give you some sweet snow kay-da-kay?"

"Hn."

"I'll take that as an affirmative." she said with a smirk of her own.

"Shuichi, Ayla. Dinner's ready!" Shiori called.

"We'll be right there Mother." I called back.

"Well guess we'd better get down there to eat. It was nice meeting you and talking to you Hiei. See ya later tonight for sweet snow." Ayla said starting to leave the room.

"Ayla one moment please." I said.

"Let me guess. Don't say anything to anyone about Hiei having been here?" she said before I could say another word.

"Uh, yes. How did you? Ah, telepathy?"

She shook her head, "Nope. Just figured you wouldn't want me to say anything seeing as how Hiei came in through the window and not the front door. Anything else?"

I blinked, "No, nothing else."

"Kay. I'm getting some chow now." She left the room leaving Hiei and I blinking after her.

"She's a strange onna." Hiei said and then promptly left through the window.

I went downstairs to eat dinner with everyone, thinking that I had to agree with Hiei about Ayla. _She's definitely different._


	4. Sweet Snow and Questions

_**TheHeartsPath: Whew! Ok, here's chapter 4! This one gave me a bit of trouble. Writer's block tried to take over. But I found a way around it...drinking sweet ice tea! The caffiene gets the brain working. Which I guess is why this chapter is longer than the others. Anyway hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 4: Sweet Snow and Questions**

Ayla's POV

Dinner went well, amazingly enough. I figured that Sinclair or Haku (or both) would totally do something extremely stupid. But they surprised me by actually managing to act civilized. Everyone had laughed when I asked them who they were and what they had done with my brothers. Well, everyone except said brothers, they just glared at me.

The dinner was amazing. Turned out that our mothers were an awesome team in the kitchen. I ate twice as much as Sinclair and he eats a lot. Kokoda had asked where I put it all considering how small I am. Needless to say Shiori started to scold him about asking a girl something like that. I came to his rescue saying that I didn't mind, seeing as I've been asked that question before and I'd probably be asked it again by someone else.

I told him it was cause I have an extremely high metabolism and that I'm also hyperactive. Poor Kokoda had only looked more confused at my explanation.

Shuichi explained it to him as "Her body burns up so much energy, so fast, that she needs that much food in order to not run out of energy and end up sick."

All he could come back with was "Oh." He cheered up when Sinclair mentioned that he didn't understand it either. Sinclair then said that I was just weird that way, to which I responded by glaring at him.

After dinner we all ate sweet snow aka ice cream. Well the majority of us ate it anyways...Kokoda, Sinclair, and Haku literally inhaled theirs. I was amazed that not one of them ended up with brain freeze. Of course this requires a brain to freeze, which I was certain neither of my brothers had. Since I wasn't certain of Kokoda having a brain or not I decided that he simply had a good resistance to it happening. This of course resulted in all the ice cream disappearing just like I thought it would, leaving none for Shuichi to save for Hiei.

We stayed long enough to help clean up everything from the cooking and eating of dinner. It was nearly ten o'clock when we were done. We said our thank yous for having us over and our good nights and went back to our house.

As we were walking back to the house I noticed someone in the tree near my window. _So Hiei's already been waiting on me to give him sweet snow. I'll need to hurry so that he doesn't have to wait too much longer. Oh dear, just how long HAS he been waiting?_ I hoped that he hadn't been waiting in the tree since before dinner, since dinner took awhile to be eaten, but I already knew he had. So I decided to contact him telepathically. _~Hiei?~_

_~What onna?~_

I couldn't help it when my eye twitched. I seriously couldn't wait until I had his respect and I could get him to stop calling me that. _~I'll be up there as soon as I can to get you some sweet snow ok?~_

_~Hn. Fine.~_

I couldn't help but feel bad for having him wait so long just to get sweet snow. _~I'm sorry.~_ I closed the connection after that since I couldn't think of anything else to say. I went into the house to call my grandmother about this weekend and to also get to my room as fast as possible.

Hiei's POV

_~I'm sorry.~_

I was about to ask her what she was apologizing for when she closed the connection of our minds. Growling I cursed her for closing the connection like that. I watched her walk into her house while trying to figure out what she was apologizing for. I decided to look in her mind using the Jagan for some answers to my questions.

I took my bandanna off and focused on entering her mind. _What the hell?_ Instead of finding a wall, or some kind of shield like most telepaths use to keep others from invading their minds, I found trees. _She uses a few trees as her shield? No, she's using a whole damn forest to shield her mind from intruders. Hn, pathetic. It'll be pitifully simple to find answers._ Closing my eyes I concentrated on getting past her so-called mental shield.

But for some reason the more I tried to get past her shield the more I started to get lost in the forest in her mind. Whenever I got past some of the trees, more would appear. Now I was annoyed. No one could keep me out of their mind when I used the Jagan. Yet that was exactly what was happening with this human girl's mind. _Apparently I'll have to get answers from her in another way._ I thought as I put my bandanna back over the Jagan.

The lights in her room came on and I could see her through the window closing the door. She leaned against it, closing her eyes for a moment, sighing. Standing up straight she walked over and opened the window. "You can come in now Hiei." she said.

"What took you all so long to leave and come back to your own house?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me, "I don't know about other people, but me and my family like to help clean up messes that we help to make."

"Hn. Where's the sweet snow onna?"

Her eye twitched. "I'll get it so relax and sit Hiei."

While she got the sweet snow I sat down at the window and took the time to look around the room. It was a decent sized room, even with the ceiling being slanted considering it was originally meant to be an attic. There were a couple of dressers, a trunk, desk, some kind of chest, a bookshelf, and a bed. A miniature fridge and freezer were in the corner by the desk. There were so many books that the bookshelf couldn't hold all of them, so some were on one of the dressers. Another dresser had what I remember the detective calling a stereo system and Cds on it. The desk had a laptop on it just like Kurama did at his place.

I noticed two more doors besides the one she had entered the room through. So I assumed one was a closet while the other led to a bathroom. The bed had bedding that was a mix of black, sage, and lilac. I smelt the scents of sage and lilac as well. _The combination of those two scents is rather pleasant. Not so strong that it bothers you and yet not so weak that you imagined smelling it. I wouldn't have expected this of a female her age. Heh, she's surprised me again._

"Here's the sweet snow I promised." she said.

I looked at her and saw the pint of sweet snow she had in her hand along with a spoon. She had some for herself as well and went to sit at her desk while she ate it. I realized that she had given me the flavor I had asked her about earlier. _Chocolate fudge brownie. I didn't think she'd remember._ I smirked and started eating the sweet snow and glanced over at Ayla.

She was eating her own sweet snow but was also reading a book. "Is that the book Shuichi let you borrow?" I asked, remembering to use Kurama's human name.

"Sure is. I haven't had a chance to check out the bookstores around here yet, so I haven't gotten to buy any history or mythology books. It was really nice of Shuichi to let me borrow this, even though we've only just met." she replied still reading.

I found her choice of books interesting. _I wonder if that's all she has on that bookshelf? Speaking of only just met, she only met me a couple of hours ago and yet she allowed me to come into her room. She is way too trusting for her own good._ Just thinking that was enough to get me annoyed and for some reason I couldn't explain slightly angry. Because I couldn't figure out why I was angry I ended up only getting more annoyed.

I growled in frustration which caused Ayla to glance at me with a questioning look. "What are you angry about Hiei?"

"I'm not angry about anything onna." I snapped at her.

Sighing she closed the book she had been reading, turning to look at me fully. "That's bullshit and you know it." she said staring me in the eyes.

"Hn. Clearly you're mistaken."

Raising an eyebrow she asked, "You don't know do you?"

"Know what onna?"

"That I'm an empath."

_Damn. I forgot about that._ I stayed silent.

"Besides the obvious signs that you're angry, such as the glaring and growling. Anger's melody is coming out of your heart loud and clear. Though judging from its' particular rhythm it's a mixture of protective anger and confused anger." she said with a confused look on her face.

_What the hell did she just say? Anger's melody? I was wrong, she HAS lost her sanity._ That was the only thing I could think of for the crazy words coming out of her mouth just then. "Anger's melody? Do you have any idea how insane you sound?" I asked.

She blinked and then glared at me. "Insane? Do you have any idea how patronizing you sound?" she replied back indignantly.

I tried to fight the smirk that was caused by my amusement to her turning my phrasing back at me. I gave in and smirked, which made Ayla growl. This only caused my smirk to grow with more amusement.

"Why the hell are you smirking?" she demanded.

"For a telepath and empath you are rather clueless aren't you?" I asked just to annoy her more for my amusement.

She glared at me for a few moments more before sighing and closing her eyes. When she opened her eyes I noticed she was calm for the most part, her annoyance not gone but pushed aside. "Let me tell you a few things Hiei." she said, then started holding up fingers, "One: I try not to pry into people's thoughts and/or emotions since everyone deserves their privacy. Two: I may sound insane but I'm not. I'm just being me. And three: I don't recall telling you that I was a telepath."

"That's because you didn't." I replied.

"In other words Shuichi told you?" I nodded and she sighed, shaking her head. "Guess that's to be expected, seeing as how he did say that you were a telepath too. Which explains why your energy is different from other people, well, partially explains anyway."

"And what the hell do you mean by that?" I demanded.

"Well your energy feels totally different from other people compared to Shuichi. I mean his energy feels like a mix of energy like mine and energy like yours." she blinked, "Ok...I don't think that made any sense whatsoever."

_So she knows that Kurama's not like most humans, yet also isn't like humans similar to herself. From the way she spoke I guess she doesn't know about demons._

I thought it was time to change the subject from energies to something else. Remembering her talking about anger's melody I decided to question her about it. "Earlier you said that anger's melody was coming from my heart. What did you mean by that?"

Sighing she said, "You know how thoughts come through as words, right?"

I nodded letting her know I did.

"Well, people's emotions don't come through as words. They come through as more of a melody, like you hear in music. Every emotion has a certain rhythm, with variations not only for each emotion, but also for each person. So what I 'hear' from a person's heart is what I call their Heart's Song. And I have to muffle the emotions of other people by keeping all the Heart's Doors closed unless I want to know exactly what they are feeling." she said.

I could tell she was telling the truth with how serious her tone was when she spoke. I was now curious about why she muffled other's emotions. "What happens if you don't muffle other people's emotions?" I asked.

She grimaced, apparently not even liking the thought of what happens. "I become unable to tell my own emotions apart from other people's and start to get overwhelmed by the amount of emotions. It's the same way with thoughts. Basically if I don't keep my guard up against the two at all times I end up trying to go insane." she said with a bit of sadness in her voice. She was looking at the floor by the time she finished.

What she said about having to keep a guard up at all times was true. I knew from my own experience. I'd had to learn early on after getting the Jagan to block the thoughts of others from bombarding my mind. So I figured that blocking emotions completely shouldn't be that different or hard. "Then why don't you do more than muffle them? Why don't you completely block them out altogether instead like you do thoughts?" I asked.

Her head shot up and she looked at me with something I hadn't been expecting to see on her face. Fear. I couldn't hide my shock when she looked at me. Suddenly I wanted to protect her from whatever it was that had made her so afraid. _Why is she so afraid all of a sudden? And why do I feel this need to protect her?_

"Why? You ask why I don't completely block them out? I tried doing that when I was younger! And do you want to know what happened? Doing so almost killed me! When I blocked them out I ended up getting sick so badly that I had to stay in the hospital!" she said. She had gotten loud for a moment there near the end.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, she then spoke in a quieter tone as she continued, "I was only seven when it happened. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. My parents and siblings were so worried about me too. When the doctors said that I wasn't going to last a week my parents called my grandmother to come and see if she could figure out what was wrong with me. She came and used her abilities to check me and talked to me. She asked me all kinds of questions about if anything different had been happening to me lately. If I was having trouble with blocking thoughts, or if something else was happening."

"I told her how it wasn't just thoughts I was hearing, but that I was feeling things that I knew I wasn't feeling. That these feelings came to me like a musical tune, but all of the tunes were getting mixed up and too loud. To the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I had decided I didn't want to feel or hear or whatever it was I did that allowed me to receive these things. So I did what she had taught me to do with thoughts. I blocked them out. It had been less than a day later that I started getting sick and just kept getting worse."

"Grandma Genkai then told me to stop blocking them and let them in. Since she had been the one to teach me to deal with people's thoughts when I was only three years old, I didn't question her and did what she said. Almost immediately my health started to improve. The doctors were amazed at how fast my health was improving. Grams had me stay that way for the rest of the time I was in the hospital. A few days later when I was well enough to go home she came with us and explained what was happening to me."

"She said in addition to being a telepath I was also an empath. And that I wasn't allowed to completely block the emotions of others ever again. That I had to learn to tone them down so that I still received them but wasn't overwhelmed by them. So that's what I did, I learned to muffle them and have been doing so ever since. Apparently I'd always been empathic but only being able to tell the most basic emotions that people were feeling, not the different types of each emotion like I can now. My powers suddenly got stronger when I turned seven years old. Grandma Genkai said that my powers hadn't been fully awakened before. Turning seven was apparently the age when my powers truly awakened." After saying all of that she looked at the floor once again.

I could only stare at her in shock. Finding out that she had almost died when her empathic powers had awakened was not something I had been expecting. _No wonder she was so afraid when I asked about blocking emotions completely. She'd done it once and almost died as a result._ When I thought about her almost dying I pictured her laying on a bed hooked up to different machines. I shuddered and forced that image from my mind. It disturbed me greatly to even imagine her like that.

"So that's why you looked so terrified when I asked you that." I said.

She nodded still looking at the floor.

"I still don't understand how blocking emotions almost killed you though."

"An empath _needs_ to be in contact with emotions at all times. Not always in full force, but to an extent. I think empaths draw something from emotions. Like some kind of energy or something else that only emotions give off. Otherwise..." she trailed off.

"Otherwise what?" I asked.

She looked me in the eye, "Otherwise the empath will die."

_An empath will die without emotions?_ Here I had thought that I couldn't be shocked anymore...turns out I was wrong. I had thought that empaths only sensed the emotions of others, nothing more. But never had it crossed my mind that they might actually _need_ to be exposed to emotions in order to survive. It was my turn to look at the floor. I decided that changing the subject would be a good idea. Unfortunately I was having trouble thinking of what to talk about now.

"Sorry." Ayla said.

I looked at her confused, "What are you apologizing for?"

"For the way I reacted to your questions. I just totally freaked out on you. So I'm sorry."

My eyes narrowed, "You have nothing to apologize for onna. Your reaction was natural after what you went through when your empathic powers awakened."

A smile appeared on her face, although it was a small one. "Thanks Hiei."

"Hn. Just don't get used to it." She chuckled and surprisingly I didn't get annoyed. I was just glad she was in better spirits now.

Suddenly I remembered her apologizing earlier when she was coming back from Kurama's. "Earlier when you were walking to your house you contacted me telepathically and said you were sorry. Why?"

"Huh? Oh. I was apologizing for making you wait so long to get the sweet snow I offered to share." she replied.

_She apologized for that?_ Shaking my head at her reasoning I asked her, "Why the hell do you have a forest as the shield for your mind?"

She had a shocked look on her face for a moment before saying, "So that was you trying to get inside my mind. I was wondering who it was. As to why a forest, it's because using a wall doesn't work to keep thoughts out for me. With a forest for the most part the thoughts of others don't invade my mind unless I want them to. Since they usually end up getting lost in the forest. Occasionally someone else's thought will come through on its' own, like a small breeze blowing through the branches. But that rarely happens."

"The point of a mental shield is to keep others from invading your mind." I stated bluntly.

She smirked, "It worked quite well with you didn't it? I mean after all, you wouldn't have asked about the forest shield I use with so much annoyance in your voice if you were able to get into my mind, now would you?"

"Hn." Her smirk only grew from my response.

Turning away from me, she glanced at the clock. Her smirk disappeared, "Oh hell! It's eleven o'clock! My first day at a new school is tomorrow. I need to finish getting my books together and go to bed and get some sleep."

She got up and threw her empty sweet snow container into the trash. Next she went to the dresser that had books on it and started taking certain ones, placing them into a book bag. It was like the one I used to see Kurama use when he went to that human school. "I'm not trying to rush you or anything but did you finish your sweet snow yet Hiei?" she asked looking at me.

I nodded and got up, throwing my container into the trash as well. Walking back to the window I got ready to leave when she spoke to me again.

"Hey Hiei? Where do you live?"

I looked at her, "Not anywhere around here."

"So then you live quite a distance away?"

I thought about that for a second. "As a matter of fact I do." _Which is true, though not quite the way that she's thinking probably._

"If that's so then where are you gonna stay while in town? A hotel or something?"

Shaking my head I answered, "No. I'll be staying at Shuichi's like I do on occasion."

Raising her eyebrow she asked, "If you only stay at his house on occasion, where do you stay normally?"

"At the park, in a tree."

"You stay in a tree? What about when it's raining or snowing?" she asked incredulously.

Shrugging I said, "If Shuichi is home I stay at his place until it stops."

Her eyes narrowed, "And when he's not home?"

"I find a tree to stay in."

"That's it. From now on when you're in the area, if it's storming and Shuichi isn't home you come here to get out of it. You got that?" she said crossing her arms with a stern look on her face.

"Hn. And what if you aren't here? Then what?"

"My grandmother taught me how to put barriers up and have a word for setting it up and a word for taking it down. I use one on my window and I'll tell you what the words are. This way if neither Shuichi or I am home you can get out of the storm and not have to stay in a blasted tree." she said with a smirk.

"You are too damn trusting for your own good, you know that?" I deadpanned.

Shrugging she said, "So I've been told. But I can tell from your Heart's Song that you are a trustworthy person. If you hadn't been I wouldn't have invited you over to have sweet snow."

"Hn. Whatever."

After she told me what the words were for taking down and putting the barrier back up on her window I left. I went to the tree outside of Kurama's room and thought about what I had learned. I had been planning on asking her what other abilities she had but I ended up only learning more about her empathic powers.

When she had told me about what had happened to her after her powers awoke, I could tell it was hard for her. As she spoke I had seen the distant look in her eyes. She was reliving it while she talked about it. _From the way she spoke I don't think she's talked about what happened to anyone outside her family. So why did she tell me all of that? She could have simply said that she had tried blocking emotions before and it went badly. But instead she told me everything when she didn't have to._

I decided that I'd tell Kurama what I found out about her empathic powers tomorrow. However, I was not going to tell him about what happened to her when they awakened. I didn't have the right to tell anyone, that was Ayla's right, and hers alone. If she chose to tell him or anyone else she would do so. But until then I would keep what she said in confidence.

Her offering to let me stay in her room when it was storming had surprised me. Though by the end of the conversation it was more of a demand that I stay there when I needed a place to get out of a storm. _She wasn't going to take no for an answer on that._ I thought with a smirk.

I could see how she was related to Genkai in that aspect. If either one said that a person was going to do something, they were going to do it, no questions asked. And nothing would change their decision.

_Since she lives next to Kurama I'll probably end up talking to her whenever I visit him. Maybe next time I can find out if she has other abilities beside telepathy and empathy. And maybe I'll figure out what it is about her that seems to draw me to her._ With that thought in mind I knocked on Kurama's window. He let me in and we both settled down for the night.

Ayla's POV

After Hiei left I finished getting ready for school and got in bed. As I laid there trying to go to sleep I kept replaying our conversation in my mind. I had been surprised when he'd gotten angry after asking me about the book Shuichi let me borrow. I was even more confused by the types of anger he was experiencing. _Protective and confused anger, an interesting mix. I was going to ask him about it but I completely forgot about it when he started to get patronizing and then amused._

I scowled, for once I had actually wanted to listen to a person's thoughts and find out what the hell he found so damn amusing. I recalled that he had also been amused by my embarrasment earlier at Shuichi's place. _He finds my reactions amusing! Why that little...I ought to punch him for that!_ I growled, I wasn't a person who liked to be used for someone's amusement. Not that I thought anyone did.

I sighed and thought back to the part of our conversation where I told him about my past. _Why did I tell him what happened back then when my empathic powers woke up? I've never talked about that with anyone except Mom, Dad, Gwen, Sinclair, and Grandma Genkai. Although Gwen and Sinclair haven't talked to me about it in years. Haku and Kira were too young to remember me ending up in the hospital. Thank goodness for that._ I thought with relief. They had both been only a year old when it all happened, so they had no memory of what happened. At least none that I knew of.

_Why? Why did I tell him so much? I barely know him and yet I trust him more than I've trusted anyone outside of my family in a long time._ I sighed as I remembered how I had stopped trusting other people when in the end all they did was stab me in the back.

_ But he's different._ I thought staring at the ceiling. _Something about him draws me to him, makes me trust him. His heart is good, though I could hear an echo of dark emotions from his past. There was hate and loathing, but also sadness. The type that comes from being alone all the time...from being shunned._

I certainly knew how that type of sadness felt from my own experience. I was shunned because of my eye color being unnatural and saying things about people's thoughts or emotions on accident. I wondered why he was shunned, what people were so afraid of him for to shun him. _I have a feeling that whatever happened to him in his past was painful and hard. For those emotions to only be an echo now means he must have met someone who helped him. Someone that showed him there were people that wouldn't betray or shun him._ I wanted to know what exactly had happened to him in the past, but I knew that he wouldn't tell me unless I had his absolute trust.

_I don't just trust him._ I realized, my eyes widening. _I trust him wholeheartedly. How the hell did that happen?_

I shook my head and looked at my alarm clock on the small dresser next to my bed, which also served as a nightstand. _Midnight, that's just wonderful. I'm gonna have to figure out why I trust Hiei so much at another time. If I don't get some sleep tomorrow is gonna be hell. Well, for me anyways._

I closed my eyes to go to sleep, smirking. _It's already going to be hell for the teachers. They're so going to have a fit when they see what I'm wearing tomorrow._ I chuckled, I couldn't wait to see the reactions I'd get. Imagining what the teachers' reactions could be I fell asleep with a smirk.


	5. First Day at a New School

_**TheHeartsPath: Well what do you know? I made it to chapter 5! Hooray! Yusuke and Kuwabara appear in this chapter. Hope you like the chapter. Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 5: First Day at a New School**

Ayla's POV

"Class we have a new student. Come in and introduce yourself to the class." the teacher said.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to the classroom and entered. Closing the door behind me, I walked to the teacher's desk and turned to the class smiling nervously. I've always hated standing up like this in front of so many people that I didn't know. "Hello, my name is Ayla Natura. It's nice to be here." _I hope I don't have to stay up here too long._

The teacher cleared his throat so I looked at him. I noticed that one of his eyes was twitching every now and then. My smile changed from a nervous one to an amused one. _Oh yeah, this teacher isn't too happy with what I'm wearing._ He wasn't the only one that had a problem with my clothes. The principal had a problem with it too. You see, I was wearing the school uniform, but it was the _boys'_ uniform instead of the girls'.

The principal told me that it was against the rules and that I was to change into the girls' uniform immediately. I told him that I'd read the school rules in their entirety and all it said was that students must wear the designated uniform of the school. It didn't say anything about the students wearing gender specific uniforms. Which meant I wasn't breaking any rules by wearing the boys' uniform. To say the principal was annoyed would be an understatement. He looked like he was going to have a stroke from a student talking to him about the rules in such a fashion. I was told to go to class, not cause trouble, and do my schoolwork or I'd be back in his office.

Figures, you be an individual and those in charge think you're going to do nothing but be a delinquent. Sad really, but so damn true.

"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself Ayla?" said Mr. Usui. At least I think his name is Mr. Usui, seeing as how I kinda forgot. For some reason I've always had a bit of a hard time remembering teachers' names.

_ Why should I tell you or anyone else anything about me? It's not like you'll reserve judgement until after you get to know me. Since I'm not wearing what all the other girls are y'all assume I'm nothing but a troublemaker._

I knew that I was doing the same thing that they were. Assuming how they'd all act towards me just because of my manner of dress. Doing so was putting me on the same level as them and I didn't want that. So I pushed those thoughts aside and hoped that maybe, just maybe, that I was wrong. And that there was at least one person in this school, besides my siblings, that would treat me as an equal and not a troublemaker or freak.

Turning back to the class I noticed that Kokoda was sitting in the row before the one in the very back, next to the window. He smiled at me encouragingly and waved at me. I relaxed a bit since I now knew that there was one person in my class that wasn't a complete stranger. _Looks like I found that one person._ I thought happily.

In a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear me clearly I said, "My family and I just moved to Japan a week ago. I have two older siblings and two younger siblings, making me the middle child of five. My favorite subject, not to mention my best, is history. My least favorite would have to be math. Which apparently hates me with a passion." This earned me a couple of chuckles from the students. _Well at least some of them have a sense of humor._

I continued what I was saying, "I grew up in America and am fluent in both the English and Japanese languages. As you all may have noticed by what I'm wearing, I'm not very fond of skirts. Especially ones that are so short. So don't be expecting to see me in the girls' uniform anytime in the near future, if ever." I couldn't help the smirk that came onto my face when I said that last bit.

Kokoda looked like he was trying not to laugh at my last few sentences. A couple of the other boys snorted, while all the girls just glared at me like they wanted to kill me or something. _Note to self: Be wary of the girls. They might try something._

I looked to Mr. Usui. "Where do I sit sir?" I politely asked. Figuring that being polite would be the best thing to do since I wanted the teacher to see I was a good student and not a troublemaker.

He blinked at me for a moment, then seemed to realize what it was I had asked. _Guess being polite threw him._ I thought trying not to laugh. Turning to look at the class he said, "You'll be sitting at the desk in the back, near the window, behind Kokoda Minamino. Minamino raise your hand so that she knows who you are."

"We already know each other Mr. Usui." Kokoda replied back.

Raising an eyebrow Mr. Usui asked, "And just how is it that you two know each other?"

I could tell he didn't like the fact that one of his students already knew me. _He's probably thinking I'm gonna contaminate him and turn Kokoda into a delinquent._ I thought rather sarcastically, fighting the urge to physically roll my eyes.

"We met each other yesterday sir. She's my new next door neighbor." Kokoda said with a smile.

Displeasure and annoyance came from Mr. Usui's Heart Song loudly enough that muffling it did no good after hearing that bit of information. Not that I needed to listen to it to tell he was feeling those things. The look on his face said it clearly enough that even a total moron could have figured it out. _Nothing I do is gonna get this guy to see I'm a good kid and not a delinquent. This is absolutely ridiculous._

"I see. Well Natura, go sit down so that class can start." Mr. Usui said in a stiff way.

I nodded to him then headed to my desk and sat down. _Well, it's now official._ I thought with a smirk. _The war known as school has commenced._

My first three periods were science, math, and history. Science class went by alright, though I did get confused with some of the formulas. I'd see about asking Gwen to help me understanding them better. She's a total whiz when it comes to science. Math class was downright demoralizing to say the least. I didn't understand what the teacher was saying half the time, and the other half was spent trying to retain what little I did understand. _I swear math hates me. That's all there is to it._

I realized with a groan that I was going to have to find someone here in Japan to tutor me in math. Back in America my parents had to hire a tutor in order for me to understand math. Sadly having a tutor was the only way I'd be able to pass math.

I was so happy when math ended and history class started. When I had said that history was my best subject I hadn't been lying. Ask me a question concerning the history of any ancient, medieval, or more recent civilization, culture, or mythology and I can answer you quick as lightning.

To put it mildly, I'm a major history nerd. I used to take college courses for history back in America before we moved. A few years ago Gwen, Sinclair, and I made a deal. Gwen would help with science, Sinclair would help with english (not the language but the writing part), and I'd help with history. It's worked pretty well for all three of us so far.

Fourth period came which meant it was time for lunch. Luckily it turned out that Kokoda and I had the same lunch period as Gwen and Sinclair. So the four of us went outside and sat under a tree to eat lunch. Turned out Kokoda forgot his lunch today, so I let him have some of mine since I always pack a big lunch. We were all eating and talking about how our day had gone so far.

Gwen was having a really good day, especially her period before lunch, which happened to be science. A couple of guys had already asked her if she wanted to go out, but she turned them down. She told them that she wanted to get used to her new town and school before she started dating anyone.

I smirked, knowing that the real reason she turned them down was because of a certain red head. She was interested in Shuichi and wanted to stay single in case he wanted to ask her out. The look she gave me clearly said 'I know that you know the truth. But don't you dare say anything to them unless you want to suffer from my wrath.' I'd learned to recognize that particular look after the first time she had a crush and I had said something when she didn't want me to. _It's not like I was planning on saying anything about her crush on Shuichi to anyone anyways._

It was only the first day at our new school and Sinclair had already managed to get detention. I held out my hand to collect the money I had won from my bet with Gwen.

She sighed, but handed the thousand yen over to me saying, "I was so sure he'd at least stay out of trouble on our first day."

I snorted, "Sinclair and detention basically go hand in hand. Like I've told you before, don't bet against a certainty."

"You two bet on whether I would get detention or not?!" Sinclair yelled.

"Yep." Gwen and I answered together while smiling.

"Some sisters you two are." he grumbled. Kokoda laughed at how disgruntled Sinclair looked. "Oh shut up Kokoda. You'd say the same thing if you had sisters betting on you getting detention or not."

"Maybe. But unlike you, I don't have any sisters Sinclair." Kokoda responded smiling. Sinclair just glared at him while Gwen and I laughed.

"Well the four of you seem to be having a good time." said a male voice from behind me. Looking over my shoulder I saw that it had been Shuichi that had spoken.

"Hey Shuichi! What are you doing here?" Kokoda asked.

Shuichi held up a bag, "Mother asked if I'd bring you your lunch since you forgot it this morning."

Smiling, Kokoda took his lunch and replied, "Thanks Shuichi."

"Hi Shuichi." Gwen said.

"Hello Gwen. I hope your first day has been going good." Shuichi replied with a smile, sitting down with the rest of us.

_Sitting right beside Gwen specifically._ I thought with a small smirk.

"Oh, it's been going great!" Gwen responded with a slight blush.

Sinclair noticed the blush and was about to comment on it when I stopped him. _~Don't comment on it right now Sinclair. Wait until we're home and you can talk to her alone.~_

My brother looked at me out of the corner of his eye, and thought back. _~You already knew didn't you?~_ He and the rest of my family were used to me talking to them telepathically on occasion so they knew how to respond back.

_~Duh, of course I knew. I'm an empath remember?~_

He shook his head then thought, _~Does he feel the same way about her?~_

Glancing at Shuichi and Gwen, who were still talking, I gave Sinclair a barely noticeable nod.

Sinclair looked back at Gwen and Shuichi saying, "You know, it's kinda rude to ignore other people and not say hello Shuichi."

Both looking slightly embarrassed Shuichi replied, "I apologize. I didn't mean to ignore you. Hello Sinclair, Ayla. Have the two of you been having a good day as well?"

"The day's been alright for me I guess." Sinclair said.

I snorted, "Alright for him meaning he's only gotten one detention."

"Hey!" Sinclair yelled.

"Oh you know it's true Sin so chill out." I smiled at my brother.

Throwing his hands up in the air he announced, "That's it, I'm going back inside. I can't take my sisters betting on me or their sense of humor anymore." He started walking back to the school mumbling about something.

"Hey wait up Sinclair! I'll come with you!" Kokoda yelled, running to catch up to him.

"Did Sinclair just say that the two of you bet on him?" Shuichi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gwen looked a little embarrassed at the question. "Yeah, we bet on whether or not he'd get detention on our first day of school."

"I see. And who may I ask won the bet?"

"That'd be me." I said smirking.

"You cheated somehow." Gwen pouted.

I rolled my eyes at her statement. "Oh yeah, sure. I cheated on a bet about our brother. Who I might add happens to have a history of always getting a detention on the first day of the school year or of a new school. Not to mention the fact that he gets into fights with people who are bullying others, thus getting detention that way." I sarcastically remarked with an eyebrow raised.

"Ok, ok, so you didn't cheat. But you did bet that he would get detention. Don't you have any faith in him to NOT get a detention?" Gwen replied.

Nodding I said, "Of course I do. But that doesn't mean I'm going to bet against the certainty of his past for first days."

Gwen glared at me while growling. We heard chuckling and both turned to look at Shuichi.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but find your conversation amusing." he said smiling in amusement.

Shaking her head Gwen looked at her watch. "Darn lunch is just about over. I need to go get ready for math. See you around Shuichi." she said heading to the school.

"See you later Gwen!" he yelled back, seeing as she was almost inside. "Shouldn't you be heading inside as well?" he asked me.

"Probably, but I really don't want to look at the teachers anymore than I have to." I replied.

He got an amused smile on his face at that and was about to say something when someone yelled his name from the gate. "Shuichi!"

We both looked over to see a couple of guys headed our way. One of them was so tall he had to be around six feet. He seemed to be made of nothing but muscle. The guy was built like a damn football player. He had that type of red hair that is considered carrot-top in a hair due that for some weird reason made me think of Elvis Presley. I noticed that his eyes were black in color. He was a bit of an odd looking duck, but he looked tough as well. From what his Heart's Song was telling me, he was one of those guys that may look tough on the outside but is actually a real big softie.

The other guy looked about five inches shorter than his friend. His black hair was slicked back with gel, which I found interesting. Back in America if I saw a guy with gel in his hair it was usually to make it all spiky and weird looking. His eyes were brown and the look in them was a cocky one. He was a handsome enough guy, that is if you were into the whole cocky punk kind of guy. His Heart's Song told me he was a good guy at heart though a bit of a dimwit. They were both wearing t-shirts, jeans, and jackets. _I take it they're friends of Shuichi's._

As they got closer I noticed that their energy was different. The carrot-top guy's energy felt like Grandma Genkai's, while the black haired one's felt more like Shuichi's. _Now this is weird. Back in America I was lucky to find one person with different energy within a year's time. But I've only been in Japan for a week and in the last two days I've found four people with energy different from normal people._

As they got to us they noticed me standing next to Shuichi. _They must have thought that Shuichi was alone._

"Uh, didn't mean to interrupt your talk man, but we kinda need to talk to Shuichi." said the guy with slicked hair.

I growled, "I'm a girl you dumbass."

"What?!" he yelped.

"Then how come you're wearing the guys' uniform and not the girls'?" the carrot-top asked.

"Cause I'm not too fond of skirts in the first place and I'll be damned if I wear one that's short everyday." I stated.

"And here I was just about to ask you about that." Shuichi said.

"These two friends of yours Shuichi?" I asked.

He nodded and said to his friends, "Why don't you two introduce yourselves?" The two of them nodded and grinned at me.

"Name's Yusuke Urameshi." said the slick haired guy.

"And I'm Kazuma Kuwabara, at your service!" the carrot-top said.

I smiled at them, "Nice to meet y'all. I'm Ayla Natura, I just moved here from America."

"America? Then how come you speak Japanese so well?" Yusuke asked.

"Gee, maybe the fact that my dad is Japanese has something to do with it?" was my sarcastic reply. Yusuke looked annoyed with how I answered him which I found amusing and smirked.

"So Ayla, how do you know Shuichi?" Kuwabara asked.

I looked up at him and answered, "My family and I moved into the house next to his so we're neighbors."

"Oh."

Yusuke snorted, "That the best you can come up with Kuwabara? Talk about lame."

"Shut up Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Yusuke, Kuwabara could you two please not fight right now?" Shuichi asked.

"Does anyone call you by your first name? Cause I just noticed that these two called you by your last name." I asked still looking at Kuwabara.

"Nah, the only ones that call me by my first name are my sister and Yukina." he replied.

I blinked in confusion. _Who the hell is Yukina?_

"Yukina is a friend of ours." Shuichi supplied.

I nodded in understanding.

"By the way, shouldn't your lunch be ending soon?" Shuichi asked.

My eyes widened, "Shit that's right. Damn now I have to deal with those asshole teachers again."

Both Yusuke and Kuwabara started laughing. "You hate school Ayla?" Yusuke asked smirking.

"No I don't hate school. I hate the assumptions people make about you based solely on how you dress, speak, or act instead of waiting until they get to know you. That's the only thing I hate about school." I responded. I blinked for a moment before adding, "Well that, the girls' uniform, and math anyway."

Kuwabara asked, "Math your worst subject?"

I snorted, "More like my worst enemy. Back in America my parents hired a tutor to help me with it. And even then I barely passed it. Now that we've moved I'm going to have to find another one if I want to pass math."

"Hey Shuichi, you're always tutoring me for math, think you could take on another?" Kuwabara asked Shuichi.

I looked at Shuichi, hoping he'd say that he'd help tutor me.

Shuichi put a hand to his chin and thought for a few moments. "Hmm. Well, I don't see why not." he said.

"Awesome! Thanks so much Shuichi!" I said with a big grin.

He smiled in response, "Kuwabara comes over around four-thirty, so why don't you come over at that time too?"

"Sure thing. I'll have to let Gwen and Sinclair know that I won't be able to help them at that time though." I answered.

With an eyebrow raised Yusuke asked, "Help who, with what?"

"My older siblings with their history. We made a deal a few years ago. I'd help with history, Gwen would help with science, and Sinclair would help with english. Uh, the writing part not the language." I decided to add that last part since I remembered that here when you take english, you're taking the language English.

"If they're older than you why the hell are you helping them with their history?"

"Cause I'm what you'd call a history nerd."

"Really? Is that why you picked that book?" Shuichi asked.

"Yep to both. Back when I lived in America I was taking history college courses. Which reminds me...I gotta see if I can find a college or university that'll let me take courses here too." I got distracted from that train of thought when I heard the bell ring. "Shit! I'm gonna be late for my next class! It was nice to meet you both Yusuke and Kazuma. Thanks for offering to tutor me Shuichi. I gotta go now. Later gators!" I ran to the school, trying to not be any later than I was already going to be.

My next class after lunch was writing. Which is basically what english is in America. Turns out we were working on poetry today which made me smile. Poetry was the only part of writing that I found not just easy but enjoyable. It was also the only part of writing that Sinclair didn't have to help me with. That class ended and it was time for gym or P.E., or whatever the hell they called it here in Japan.

I found it a bit odd that they had gym completely separated by gender. I mean sure back in America they had sports teams that were for only one gender or the other and all, but not the warm-ups. Here in Japan it turned out that _everything_ for gym was separated gender wise. _Well to each their own. Although it'd be to each country their own in this case._

There was the usual warm-up routine of stretches, sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, and running laps. After everyone was done warming up we were told that we'd be playing dodge ball. I smiled, dodge ball was one of my favorite things about gym. My smile faltered a little when I saw the evil looks some of the girls were throwing my way.

_Why are they looking at me like that?_ I wondered worriedly. Eyes widening I realized why. _Oh hell. I'm the new kid so that means that I'm automatically the target. How the hell did I manage to forget that? And the fact that I haven't been wearing the 'right' uniform has made the bullseye on my back that much bigger._ I sighed, shaking my head then smirked. _Well they're gonna find out quickly that actually hitting me with the ball is easier said than done._

I've always been quick on my feet ever since I was little. And since I was teased and bullied when I was younger I'd learned to run and dodge a hell of alot faster. Though being fast didn't always help me out since I also happen to be a total klutz.

We separated into teams and started playing. I kept dodging everything they threw at me until I was the only one left. By that time all the girls were beyond frustrated.

What happened next completely took me by surprise. The moment the teacher left the gym for something, every single one of them (even the girls whose team I was on) grabbed a ball and started trying to hit me. _I don't believe this! I mean I knew they didn't like me, but this is ridiculous!_

If later someone had asked me how I managed to dodge all of the balls that were being thrown at me I would have told them I had absolutely no clue.

Here's what the weird thing was, as I was dodging I noticed that everything looked like it was moving in slow motion. _What the hell is going on?_ I realized I was moving almost as if I was dancing. Yet I felt like I was in the middle of a fight. It was the strangest feeling and yet...it felt so natural. Because it felt natural I decided not to question it right now. Seeing as how it was keeping me from becoming one gigantic bruise.

The teacher came back in, saw what was happening, and blew her whistle. Hearing the whistle the girls stopped throwing the balls and I stopped moving. However, I didn't relax just in case one of the girls wanted to try and hit me even with the teacher there. I could feel my blood pumping in my veins in a way that I never had before. _What is this? For some reason I feel so much more alive than I normally do._

The teacher had the girls line up to lecture them about their actions and told me to go ahead and shower so I could get ready for my next class. I was so confused with trying to figure out what was going on with me that I didn't even think about not doing what I'd been told. I showered, put my uniform back on, and headed to my last class.

Art was my second favorite subject. I found it to be relaxing and enjoyable, usually anyways. But when I stepped into the classroom I nearly gagged. For some reason the smells of the art supplies had intensified immensely. _Great now my sense of smell has gone haywire?_

Trying to ignore the smells I looked around and noticed something else was different, aside from my sense of smell. Anywhere I looked everything was clearer, more distinct, and the colors were brighter, sharper. _Whoa, this is amazing. But why is this happening all of a sudden? I have to tell Grandma Genkai about this when I see her._ While I thought that I sat down.

Class started a few minutes later when the teacher came in. By the time class ended an hour later I had a massive headache. _I feel like I just got hit in the head with a sledge hammer. Bet this headache is because my senses decided to go into freak out mode._

I went to my locker finding Gwen at hers as well. Turned out Sinclair's detention only lasted fifteen minutes. So we waited until he got out and started to head outside.

Just as we got ready to leave the school grounds Kokoda came up to us. "Hey guys, do you think we could walk home together?" he asked.

Sinclair answered, "Sure thing."

Gwen and I nodded in agreement.

Kokoda grinned, "Cool." We left and started heading home.

"By the way, I'm going to be coming over to your house at four-thirty Kokoda." I said as we walked.

"Four-thirty? Is Shuichi going to be tutoring you on math too?" Kokoda asked.

"Yeah."

"Then what about us? I totally need your help with my history homework about the Egyptians." Gwen said.

"Same here." Sinclair sighed.

"Ayla that good at history?" Kokoda inquired.

"She could teach it she's so good." was Gwen's reply.

"I'm not that good Gwen." I retorted.

"You are and you know it Ayla. So just admit it." Sinclair stated.

Grinning Kokoda said, "I could use some help with what Mr. Lee assigned us Ayla." Looking at Gwen and Sinclair he asked, "Either of you any good at writing or science? I'm not sure I got some of what our teachers said."

"If you want help with science, I'm the one you need." Gwen stated with a smile.

"Writing is my forte. So I'm your man." Sinclair grinned.

"So then you should all three come over. That way we can all help each other out. Well you three can help out anyways. The only thing I'm good at is computers." Kokoda said.

"Then can you help me with this program my teacher assigned my class to design? I understood the basics, but some of the details didn't make too much sense." Sinclair asked.

"Sure, no problem Sinclair." Kokoda replied.

"Well this works out nicely now doesn't it? We can all help each other with something we have trouble with. Good thing we're neighbors." I said with a laugh.

"Yeah, you said it." Gwen agreed.

The boys nodded in agreement.

We continued on our way home to face the arch nemesis of all students...homework.


	6. Stalker?

_**TheHeartsPath: I'm so sorry it took me so long to write chapter 6! Writer's block on top of the fact that my dad is getting ready to deploy makes writing a bit difficult. Again my apologies. Here's chapter 6 for your reading pleasure! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 6: Stalker?**

Kurama's POV

After Ayla left to go to her next class I turned to Yusuke and Kuwabara. "So what is it that you need to talk to me about?" I asked.

"The toddler wants to see all of us for something. Not sure what though." Yusuke answered.

I frowned slightly, "You know Yusuke, you really should stop calling Koenma that."

"Ah, whatever Kurama." Yusuke replied with his own frown.

I sighed and shook my head. _I should know by now that trying to get Yusuke to stop calling Koenma a toddler is hopeless._

"Hey guys?" Kuwabara asked.

"What is it Kuwabara?" I asked looking at him.

"Did either of you notice Ayla's energy? It was totally different from anything I've felt before." Kuwabara said.

"Yeah I noticed it too. It felt kinda like mine or Kurama's energy but different at the same time." Yusuke answered.

"Yes her energy is different. I have been wanting to talk to Koenma about it since last night." I stated.

"Last night?" Yusuke asked looking confused.

I nodded, "Yes. She and her family came over to my house last night and had dinner. While everyone else was busy doing something she and I talked. She had noticed that my energy was different from normal humans and wanted to talk to me about it." _Well that and about my attraction to her sister. But they don't need to know that part._

"What did you tell her when she asked you about it?" Kuwabara asked.

"I didn't have to say anything. We actually ended up talking about her abilities for a few moments though. She's a telepath and an empath. Which is a very rare combination. I believe she may also have the powers of a psychic considering who she said her grandmother is." I said.

"So who's her grandmother Kurama?" Yusuke asked.

"According to Ayla her grandmother is Genkai." I stated calmly.

"WHAT?" both Yusuke and Kuwabara shouted. Both with looks of disbelief on their faces.

"When she told me I was shocked as well." I said.

"I didn't know that Genkai had a granddaughter." Kuwabara said still slightly in shock.

"None of us knew Kuwabara." Yusuke said glancing at Kuwabara. Looking back at me Yusuke asked, "Anything else happen last night that you'd like to tell us?"

"Well after Ayla and I spoke about her abilities and she told me Genkai was her grandmother, she did something that surprised me greatly." I stated.

"Enough with the mystery Kurama. Just tell us what happened already." Yusuke said, annoyance clear in his voice.

"She sensed Hiei in the tree outside my room, when I hadn't even sensed him yet." I said bluntly.

"Are you serious? The three of us have trouble sensing the shrimp and she sensed him _before_ you did Kurama?" Kuwabara asked rather loudly, his eyes wide with shock.

"Wait a minute. What happened after she sensed him?" Yusuke asked.

"Hiei came inside and they met. It was quite interesting to say the least." I replied, smiling as I thought back to how the two had interacted with each other.

_~You better not tell them everything that happened when the onna and I met Kurama. Or I will kill you.~_

_~Don't worry Hiei. I won't go into detail.~_

"Hiei didn't try to kill her did he?" Kuwabara asked worriedly.

Shaking my head I answered, "No, nothing of the sort. He actually talked to her quite a bit. The same holds true for Ayla."

"You sure we're talking about the same Hiei here? Cause the Hiei I know rarely talks to anyone, unless it's to threaten or insult someone." Yusuke said with an eyebrow raised.

Smiling again I said, "The two of you will just have to see for yourselves some time."

"Right...by the way, where is the shrimp anyway? Koenma wanted all four of us to come for whatever it is he wants this time." Kuwabara said.

"I'm not sure. We'll have to fill him in on what Koenma wants later I suppose." I replied. _Actually I do know where he is. Seeing as he has been in this tree we are near this entire time._

I had sensed him when I first arrived to give Kokoda his lunch. He'd been so distracted watching Ayla that he hadn't been masking his energy completely. _It would seem that he's even more interested in Ayla than I thought._

"Let's go and see what the damn toddler wants us to do this time." Yusuke grumbled.

We left the school grounds, went to a nearby alley and had Koenma open a portal for us to his office in the Reikai.

Hiei's POV

I had told Kurama this morning what I had learned from Ayla about her empathic powers last night. He had found it interesting that empaths _needed_ to be in contact with emotions at all times. Though he was just as shocked as I had been to find out that if an empath doesn't stay in contact with emotions they will die.

After telling him that information I left through the window. I had decided that I'd follow Ayla to whatever school it was that she was attending. I sat in the tree at Kurama's waiting for her to leave.

When she came outside I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining what she was wearing. The uniform she was wearing was exactly like the one Kurama had worn in the past. I remembered the fox telling me that the students that went to his school had to wear particular uniforms. Boys wearing the one like he wore, while girls wore a different one. Like the one that her sister was wearing. Obviously Ayla didn't care for the girls' uniform if she was wearing the boys' one.

Shaking my head I decided that nothing else she did would surprise me. _At least now I know she goes to the same school where the fox used to go._

After she and her siblings had gotten to the school I found a tree to sit in. I used the Jagan to see what was going on inside and found Ayla in some office with a man who she referred to as 'principal.' I was impressed with the way she told him she wasn't breaking the rules with what she was wearing. The way the man talked to her like she was going to only cause trouble made me want to run him through with my sword. From the way Ayla acted she expected the man to react as he did. She left the office and I could tell that even though she'd been expecting that reaction it still annoyed her.

I followed her energy until she stopped and went to find a tree closer to where she was. Luckily the tree had a branch that was level with the window of the room she entered and the leaves were thick enough that no one could see me.

The way she was smiling at the other people in the room told me she was nervous. But when she looked at the teacher her nervousness changed to amusement. She turned back to the class and told them about herself, though what she told them were things that were probably normally told by other students.

From our talk last night I already knew she loved history. I was amused with how she spoke about her uniform and how they shouldn't expect to see her in the one for girls. One could tell from watching her that she was looking the students over, to see what their reactions were to what she said. She found the males reactions normal as far as I could tell. But the other females reactions worried her, judging by the way she slightly tensed up at seeing the looks in their eyes.

Turning back to the teacher, she asked him in a polite manner where she should sit. He seemed startled that she was being polite by the way he blinked at her. Even from where I was sitting I could see the sparkle of amusement in her eyes, showing that she was trying to not laugh. As she headed toward her seat I could tell she was exasperated with the teacher already.

I decided to see if I could hear any thoughts of hers' that were on the surface. Seeing as how I couldn't hear her deeper thoughts due to her shields. _~Well, it's now official. The war known as school has commenced.~_ She was smirking as she thought that and I couldn't help but smirk as well. _Looks like I was right. She doesn't bother to shield her surface thoughts. I wonder why she doesn't shield them as well._ Shrugging I decided to ask her about that at a later time.

The first of her classes seemed to go fine, but by the time the second one was done she appeared to be depressed. I listened to her surface thoughts again, _~I swear math hates me. That's all there is to it.~_ Hearing that I knew she didn't just appear depressed by math, she _was_ depressed. I frowned, I didn't like the fact that something had made her that upset. _Why does her being upset bother me so much?_

That class ended and she smiled when the next one began. Seeing her smile made me smile as well. _Good, she's not thinking about the math anymore. She looks even more beautiful when she smiles._ My eyes widened in shock. _Where the hell did that come from? I shouldn't be thinking such things about a human female!_

I growled, wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I'd never thought things like this before. At least, not until I met Ayla. _Dammit, what is it about her that is making me think these things? Hell I was talking more than I normally do last night too. This is getting ridiculous._

I'd gotten lost enough in my thoughts that I hadn't realized that Ayla was no longer in the room that I'd been watching her in. _Now where the hell did that onna go?_ I located her energy on the move in the building. From the direction she was going I discerned that she was heading to the entrance of the school. _Why is she heading outside?_ As she came out I noticed that her siblings along with Kurama's human brother were with her.

They walked to the tree that I was in, sat down and started eating. Obviously they were unaware of my presence. They were talking about how their day was going. After Kurama's brother mentioned that he forgot his lunch the onna started sharing her lunch with him.

I almost started growling, but stopped myself from doing so. For some reason her sharing food with another male bothered me greatly. _What the hell is wrong with me? She is just sharing her food with that human male, nothing more and I'm getting annoyed._

I noticed her smirk about something and wondered what she found amusing. She held her hand out toward her sister after her brother said he got detention, whatever the hell that was. Her sister handed over one thousand yen, so I figured they had made a bet about something and Ayla had won it. I smirked when she said something about 'don't bet against a certainty' to her sister. Her brother wasn't too pleased about them betting on him, but the girls and Kurama's brother certainly found his reaction amusing.

Unfortunately I hadn't sensed Kurama approach so when he spoke it took me by surprise. _I can't believe I didn't sense him. This onna distracted me so much I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. Hn, that's unacceptable._ I got annoyed and glared at Ayla for distracting me, not that she saw me glaring at her.

Kurama started talking to the onna's sister and sat down next to her. Her sister blushed and I sensed Ayla start a telepathic conversation with someone. Focusing I realized she was communicating with her brother. I decided to see if I could eavesdrop and hear what they were talking about.

_~Don't comment on it right now Sinclair. Wait until we're at home and you can talk to her alone.~_ I figured she was telling her brother not to comment on their sister blushing for some odd reason.

Watching them I saw her brother glance at her. _~You already knew didn't you?~_ Hearing him think that question told me he was used to this way of communication with Ayla. There was no trace of panic or nervousness in his thought.

_~Duh, of course I knew. I'm an empath remember?~_ The corner of my mouth twitched in amusement at her slightly sarcastic response.

Shaking his head her brother asked, _~Does he feel the same way about her?~_ I saw her glance at her sister and Kurama, giving her brother a nod that was barely noticeable.

Both were embarrassed after the onna's brother said what he did about being rude and ignoring people. Kurama apologized, then greeted him and Ayla, asking them about their day. After her brother replied Ayla joked about what he meant. Becoming irritated her brother said something about his sisters betting on him and their sense of humor and headed back inside the building. The fox's brother yelled and ran after him also going inside.

Kurama asked the girls about the bet and they talked about it for a few minutes. When the onna had sarcastically replied to her sister saying that she had cheated, the corner of my mouth twitched with amusement. Listing facts about their brother's past history with getting detention on first days was a smart way of showing her sister how stupid it was saying that she had cheated. Her sister admitted that Ayla hadn't cheated, but she still didn't like the fact that she had bet that he would get detention. The onna had let her sister know that she did have faith in their brother to not get detention, but that she wasn't going to go against a certainty when it came to a bet on him with first days.

After her sister growled Kurama couldn't keep his amusement hidden any longer and chuckled. I had also found their conversation amusing but kept myself from doing more than smirk. I didn't want anyone to know that I was there.

_~Hello Hiei.~_

My eyes widened, I knew who that was. _Damn, Kurama knows I'm here._ A moment later her sister headed back inside, leaving Ayla and Kurama alone. I ended up having a quick telepathic conversation with the fox.

_~What exactly are you doing here Hiei? I would have thought that you would be someplace where there weren't quite so many humans.~_ Kurama asked.

_~It's none of your business where I go or why I go there Kurama.~_ I replied.

_~Of course not. I was merely wondering why you were following Ayla around.~_

I glared at the fox, though I doubt he actually saw it. _~Who said I was following the onna?~_

_~I did, because that is exactly what you are doing.~_

_~Hn.~_

_~Hiei, you do realize that by following her like this you are being a stalker?~_

I rolled my eyes. _~I am not stalking her. I'm observing a possible threat.~_

_~So you do admit to following her then.~_

Damn, he got me there. I stayed silent.

_~You are stalking her Hiei.~_

_~How many times do I have to tell you that I am not stalking the onna!~_

_~Whatever you say...stalker.~_

I mentally growled at Kurama and closed my mind off from him. Damn that fox and his ability to turn your own words against you.

I sensed Yusuke and the fool right before the detective yelled the fox's human name. As they came closer I noticed that Ayla was looking at them with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. She seemed to be taking in what they looked like so she would recognize them later on if she needed to.

Her eyes widened a fraction when she noticed that their energy was different. I found her thoughts about the number of people she's met with different energy a bit strange. _Are there not that many psychics or others with abilities in America?_

When Yusuke had referred to her as a man, she growled and said that she was a girl, calling him a dumbass as well. His reaction was rather amusing. Surprisingly, the fool was the one asking the smart questions instead of the detective for once. Ayla was amused, as was I, when she annoyed Yusuke with her sarcastic reply about why she speaks Japanese so well. She seemed a little confused when both Yusuke and Kurama called the oaf by his last name.

I stiffened when the oaf mentioned Yukina. I was ready to take either Kurama's or Yusuke's head off with my sword if one of them slipped about her being my sister. The look on Ayla's face plainly said she was wondering who Yukina was. When Kurama told her that she was a friend, I placed my hand on the hilt of my katana, but I removed it after he changed the subject to something else.

The two idiots found her dislike of school amusing. Though she clarified that it wasn't school itself that she hated, but the assumptions that people make, as well as the uniform for girls and math. When that fool Kuwabara asked Kurama if he could take on another person to tutor in math, a hopeful look appeared on Ayla's face.

I contacted Kurama telepathically, _~You better help her with math fox.~_

_~And why is that Hiei?~_

_~It's simple Kurama, if you don't help her I'll make you regret it.~_

_~Worried about her grades are you?~_ There was a hint of amused teasing in the fox's mental voice.

_~Hn, don't be ridiculous. The fact that she has trouble understanding math bothers her. She doesn't need to be getting depressed over something like that.~_

_~It bothers her that much?~_ The amused teasing was gone as if it had never existed now.

_~Immensely. Now are you going to help her or not?~_

_~Of course.~_

After the fox said that he'd help her out, she was so happy that she had one of the biggest grins appear on her face. Grinning like that lit up her face. _She really does look beautiful like that._ I blinked and mentally slapped myself for thinking like that again.

When Kurama told her to come at the same time that the fool does she mentioned that she'd have to let her siblings know that she couldn't help them out at that time. This of course raised questions from the detective and the fox, to which she explained about their deal and her being what she called a 'history nerd.' She had obviously gotten distracted thinking about finding a place where she could take more history classes when the bell rang. Saying she was going to be late, she said her goodbyes and ran into the building.

Deciding to stay where I was for the time being, I waited to find out what Yusuke and the oaf wanted to talk to Kurama about. I scowled when I heard that the infant wanted to see the four of us for something yet again. Considering the fool's strong sixth sense I wasn't surprised that he had felt the difference in Ayla's energy. Not that I'd _ever_ admit that out loud to anyone. I had known that Yusuke would sense it as well, since he is one of the strongest demons in the three worlds.

Kurama told them how he and Ayla had talked about his energy being different, leaving out the part of his interest in her sister and her threatening him. _If he mentioned that those two idiots would do nothing but ask him a million questions about it._

He also told them what her abilities were and that she might have the powers of a psychic because of her grandmother. The detective and the fool were both just as shocked as the fox and I had been when we found out that her grandmother was Genkai.

After Yusuke asked about anything else happening last night, I hoped that Kurama wouldn't mention about mine and the onna's meeting. Needless to say he told them. The fool couldn't seem to get over the fact that Ayla had sensed me before Kurama had. Yusuke was curious about what had happened next. From the way Kurama was smiling he had obviously found the memory of our meeting amusing.

_~You better not tell them everything that happened when the onna and I met Kurama. Or I will kill you.~_

_~Don't worry Hiei. I won't go into detail.~_

I rolled my eyes at the fool's question about me trying to kill her. The detective obviously didn't believe the fox about how much I talked to Ayla. Hell I still couldn't believe how much I had spoken to her. When Kurama said that they would have to see for themselves sometime, I prayed that time would never come.

I wanted to punch the oaf when he asked where I was, calling me 'shrimp' but restrained myself. Thankfully Kurama didn't tell them that I was there. Yusuke grumbled something about the 'damn toddler' and they left. I used my Jagan to watch them go to an alley and walk through a portal to the Reikai. After they were gone I located Ayla's energy and went to see what she was doing now.

Finding her in another room, I sat in a tree, and I saw her smiling. Apparently she found what they were doing enjoyable. That class ended and I followed her to a giant room that I vaguely remembered Kurama calling a 'gym.' She had changed into a t-shirt and shorts before coming into the gym.

Seeing her in those clothes I couldn't help but notice that she had a very nice figure. Curves in the right places and long legs. _With a body like that why does she wear clothes that hide it?_ I blushed realizing what I was thinking about Ayla. _Stop thinking those kind of thoughts! She's only a human female!_

While everyone was warming up I realized that she was a bit more muscular than the other girls, not too much, just enough to show that she worked out. _The other females probably only exercise when they are here or when they go shopping._ I shook my head at that. Humans can be so lazy that it amazes me how they even manage to survive.

After the warm-ups the teacher announced that they'd be playing dodge ball, whatever the hell that was. Ayla had smiled when she heard what they would be doing. _She must enjoy this dodge ball._ I noticed her smile falter as she glanced at the other girls. Looking at the other girls to see why her smile had faltered, I saw the look in their eyes directed at Ayla. They obviously had it in for her.

I decided to again see what Ayla was thinking. _~Why are they looking at me like that?~_ I could tell she was worried as she thought that, but then her eyes widened in realization. _~Oh hell. I'm the new kid so that means that I'm automatically a target. How the hell did I manage to forget that? And the fact that I haven't been wearing the 'right' uniform has made the bullseye on my back that much bigger.~_ She shook her head and smirked. _~Well they're gonna find out that actually hitting me with the ball is easier said than done.~_ I raised an eyebrow at that last thought wondering what exactly she meant by it.

My question was answered a few minutes later when they separated into teams and started playing. She was dodging all the balls that were thrown at her, while her team got rid of the people on the other side. This kept going until she was the only one left that hadn't been hit on either team. I could tell that the girls were frustrated from not being able to hit her at all.

As soon as the teacher left the gym, every single one of those girls picked up a ball and started trying to hit her. Even the ones with which she was teamed with were trying to hit her. What they were doing seriously pissed me off. I wanted to go in there and slice all of those bitches into pieces, although I would have ended up in Reikai prison if I did that.

Ayla was still dodging every one of the balls being thrown at her when I noticed something about the way she was moving. She was moving as if she was dancing and fighting at the same time. It was...mesmerizing. _She's moving faster and more gracefully than a normal human and I don't think she realizes that._ I watched this go on for about ten minutes and then the teacher came back in and blew a whistle.

The girls all stopped when they heard the whistle. Ayla stopped moving as well, although she didn't relax her guard. Obviously not trusting the fact that the teacher was there to keep the girls from trying to hit her again. The girls were lined up by the teacher, who told Ayla to go ahead and leave. I tried to listen to her surface thoughts, but she was so confused that they weren't making any sense.

Again I followed her energy to another room and sat in a nearby tree. She entered the room a few moments later and instantly looked like she was going to be sick. From her thoughts I discovered that her senses of both smell and sight were heightened. I also agreed with her thought of telling Genkai about what was going on with her senses. _Could it be that she has another ability that is awakening? And if that is what's going on, what could this new ability be?_

She sat down and waited for the class to start. I could tell that she was having some trouble dealing with the art supplies' scents being intensified. The scents were obviously making her nauseous, judging by the way she was taking small breaths with her mouth instead of breathing through her nose. She was also squinting her eyes so that the colors wouldn't make her eyes hurt.

By the time the class ended she was holding her head with her eyes shut tight. _~I feel like I just got hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Bet this headache is because my senses decided to go into freak out mode.~_ I raised an eyebrow at the sledgehammer part of her thought, but she was right as to what had caused her headache.

Kurama had told me that when his powers had reawakened enough for him to use them for the first time since he had become human he had headaches. It was because for years his senses were that of a mere human's then his demon senses came back and his human body had to adjust to his new heightened senses. _It will take her some time to become used to her newly heightened senses. Which means she's gonna be having headaches for awhile._

I remembered that this was the time that Kurama was always leaving this place when he used to come here. So I went and waited in a tree that wasn't so close to the building. Ayla and her siblings came out of the school fifteen minutes later and were about to leave the school grounds when the fox's human brother came up to them. He asked about them walking home together, the onna's brother giving a verbal affirmation, while she and her sister merely nodded.

Ayla mentioned that she would be going over to his house at four-thirty, which started them all talking about their homework. The word 'homework' reminded me about how both the detective and the fool would complain about it and the fox seeming to enjoy it.

Ayla blushed slightly when her sister stated that Ayla was good enough at history to teach it. I frowned when she said what she did about 'not being that good.' _Does she really think that or is she just being modest?_ By the time their conversation ended it was decided that all of them would be going over to Kurama's house to help each other out with homework.

I followed them back to their homes and went to sit in the tree outside of Ayla's room. On the way I had decided that I was going to talk to her again and find out if she had any other abilities this time. That is if I could actually remember to ask about that. I'd realized that I seemed to have a bit of trouble remembering to ask her about that when I spoke to her last night. _I will make sure that doesn't happen again. This time I will get answers._


	7. Getting Answers? A Surprise?

_**TheHeartsPath: Yet another chapter written, hooray! Thanks for the reviews! Now here's chapter 7 for all you loyal readers! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy! P.S. I just realized I never said this at the beginning of a chapter so here goes...Please read and review! Thank you!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 7: Getting Answers? A Surprise?**

Ayla's POV

The four of us had gotten home around 3:45 pm, so we had forty-five minutes until the time Shuichi said to come over. It was decided that we'd fill our mothers in about the study group we had just made with each other. So when we got home we separated and went into our houses.

Kira and Haku were already home since Mom had picked them up from school. The two of them were already working on their homework. Haku greeted us without looking up from his, while Kira ran over to the three of us and gave us each a hug before going back to work on hers.

Gwen told me and Sinclair that she'd let Mom know about what was going on. She went to the laundry room where Mom was working on cleaning clothes. Sinclair went upstairs to his and Haku's room on the second floor to change and make sure he had everything he needed to have before we went next door later. I went to the kitchen to grab a bowl of grapes as a snack. Then headed upstairs to my room to do the same thing as my brother.

Not to mention ask Hiei why he'd been following me all day.

I had noticed him following me on the way to school this morning. At first I had thought it was just a coincidence that we were going in the same direction. But as we got closer to the school and he continued to follow while staying hidden in trees and on rooftops, I decided that I had been wrong about it being a coincidence. Since I had no idea why he was doing this I just ignored him and let him do whatever.

Correction, I _tried_ to ignore him. Which wasn't easy since his emotions kept going crazy. His Heart's Song was nothing but a mixed up mess, going from one emotion to the next and back and around again. If it had been something physical that I was watching with my eyes I'd have ended up being very dizzy.

Only twice had I gotten a clear hearing of his Heart's Song. The first time had been when I started sharing some of my lunch with Kokoda. The melody I heard coming from him was jealousy. Which totally threw me seeing as how I didn't understand why he was jealous or what he was jealous about.

The second time had been while I was dodging the balls that the girls were throwing at me in gym after the teacher had left. To put it lightly, he was PISSED, and I mean big time. I could understand why he got angry, the girls ganging up on me like that wasn't right. Something told me that if he could have gotten away with it he'd have either seriously injured all of them or killed them. Neither of which would have been good.

I was glad when I sensed him follow me to my next class. Since it meant that he wasn't doing any damage to anyone. At least not physical damage. I hoped he wasn't using his telepathic powers to do any mental damage. If I found out that he did we were going to have a _long_ talk the next time we spoke.

I got to my room, closing and locking the door. Didn't need one of my siblings or my mother coming in while Hiei was in there. I went to my desk and set my bag and snack on it. Looking out my window I saw Hiei sitting in the tree staring at me.

The way he was staring made me think of a predator watching its prey. Waiting for just the right moment to go for the kill. _A gorgeous, crimson eyed predator._ I blushed at that thought, my heart beating faster. _Down girl, down. No more thoughts about Hiei and his looks. Even if he and his looks do make for some interesting thoughts. Like how those beautiful eyes of his draw you in and...NO, NO, NO! STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT AT ONCE!_

I was suddenly glad that I had started guarding my thoughts more when I got home. At school I had been so nervous about how my first day would go that I had forgotten to guard my surface thoughts from others. _Considering he tried to get in my mind last night I wouldn't be surprised if he was listening to my surface thoughts today. I really should have been paying more attention to my shielding._ I thought, annoyed with myself as I walked over to the window.

I unlocked the window and opened it. As I did this I whispered the word to take the barrier on it down. "Hey Hiei. Come on in." I said, turning and walking back to my desk.

I had just popped a grape in my mouth when Hiei asked, "Why are you blushing onna?"

That question startled me and I started choking. "No reason." I replied, coughing a little bit from trying to have a grape go down the wrong pipe. _Like he's going to believe that for a moment._

"You're lying." he said, from right behind me.

I yelped and turned around fast, finding Hiei barely a foot from me. _How the hell did he get so close without me hearing him?_

"Tell me why you are blushing onna." Hiei demanded.

"Why I'm blushing is none of your business." I retorted with a glare. He was about to say something more when I cut him off, hoping to distract him. "Was there a particular reason you were waiting outside my room? Or were you just continuing your stalking of me for the day?"

"I wasn't stalking you!" Hiei said a bit too loudly.

Quickly I put my hand over his mouth and saw his eyes widen slightly. "Ssh! Don't be so loud. We don't need my family finding out that I have a guy in my bedroom with the door locked." After saying this I removed my hand from his mouth and started to walk over to my closet. I wanted to change my clothes before going to Shuichi's to study.

When I had touched him my own eyes had widened. I had felt something like a jolt go throughout my entire being. _Wow...what was that? Felt weird but nice at the same time. Did Hiei feel it too or was it just me? I don't have time to try and figure it out right now. Figure it out later._

The next thing I knew, I was spun around and Hiei had me pinned by my shoulders, with my back against my closet door, looking rather annoyed. He leaned towards me until there were only a few inches between our faces. Needless to say this only made me blush more.

"Don't you ever do that again onna." he hissed.

Confused I asked, "What the hell are you talking about? Don't ever do what again?"

Glaring at me, he said, "Putting your hand over my mouth."

_You have __**got**__ to be kidding me. He is letting something like __**that**__ bother him? Well isn't that childish._ "You do realize how immature you are being right now, right?" I asked while frowning, starting to get annoyed myself.

His eyes narrowed and he started growling. His growling didn't bother me at all, even though he sounded like some wild beast when he did that. _Guess he didn't like that particular question._

"You do realize you aren't in a position to be saying things like that right now, right?" he answered my question with one of his own.

I smiled, unable to stay annoyed with him for some reason. The way he had turned my phrasing around on me was kinda intriguing. Before Hiei I'd never known someone who could do that without making themselves confused. Well, besides my grandmother that is, but since she's family it doesn't really count.

Hiei stopped his glaring and growling the moment I smiled. He seemed to be stunned about something, though I hadn't a clue about what. I blinked when I noticed that his face was lightly flushed.

Worried that he might be coming down with something I put my hand on his forehead, trying to see if he had a fever. Which would be a little hard to do seeing as he was wearing that white bandanna of his. Doing that seemed to snap him out of the trance he was in and he backed away from me.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

Blinking in confusion, I said, "I noticed that your face was flushed and I was worried that you were coming down with a cold or something. So I was checking to see if you had a fever, you felt a bit warm so you might have one. Unless your body temperature is like mine and your normal temperature runs slightly higher than most other people's do."

He shook his head, a look of disbelief on his face. _Okay, he's acting weird._

"My body temperature has always been high. So you are wrong about me having a fever." he stated.

I shrugged, "Just wanted to check. I don't want you to be sick." Since Hiei no longer had me pinned I turned around, opened my closet and walked inside.

Most of the clothes I owned were guys clothes. I did have girls clothes but not that many. Those were usually only used when going out with my family. Pants and shirts is what the majority of my clothes were. My girls clothes consisted of three pairs of nice form-fitting jeans, one dress (used for special occasions only), four dressy shirts, and two skirts (one floor length made of cloth and the other being right above knee length made of jean material.)

Like I said...not many girl clothes.

I looked for something to wear that was more comfortable than my uniform. I grabbed a pair of blue jeans that I had on a hanger and a pair of black flip-flops from the little shoe rack on the floor. Leaving my closet I closed it, noticing that Hiei was sitting on my window seat, watching me.

_What the hell is he watching me for?_ Him watching me so intently was making me blush even more. _I don't think I've ever blushed so much in my life._ I figured that asking him why would be pointless. Choosing to ignore him I went back to getting a change of clothes.

From one of my dressers I grabbed one of Sinclair's old gray t-shirts. The shirts were in perfect condition but he had decided to throw them away when he bought himself a bunch of new shirts with different bands on them. Like hell I was going to let him do that to perfectly good clothes. I had gotten Gwen and Kira to distract Sinclair long enough for me to take them for myself. Sinclair hadn't even realized that my 'new' shirts were his old ones until Haku had said something.

My siblings thought I was weird for not wanting to get new clothes all the time. Gwen especially found it strange having a tomboy for a sister. Mom had been worried about my not wanting to spend money on clothes, makeup, or jewelry like most girls my age. Even with my being a tomboy. Dad had told her that I merely preferred to spend my money on things that I thought were more practical, like books, art supplies, or food.

Since my clothes were in good condition I wasn't going to waste money on more clothes that I didn't actually _need_. Nor was I going to waste money on makeup or jewelry that I'd probably never wear. What little jewelry I did own was a couple pairs of earrings (as well as a few earrings that had lost their counterparts), three rings, and maybe a bracelet (if it was still in one piece anyways).

I placed my shoes by my bedroom door and my shirt on my bed. I'd put it on in a bit seeing as I already had a tank top of under my uniform. I then went into the bathroom to take off my uniform and put on my jeans.

_Finally! No more uniform today! Now to find out what exactly it is that Hiei wants. Not to mention find out why he keeps watching me!_ I walked out of the bathroom and went to hang up my uniform before I started questioning Hiei.

Hiei's POV

I was determined to get answers this time. The moment she got in the room all of my focus was on her. When she looked out her window she didn't seem to be surprised about my being there. When she blushed a moment later I became curious. _What's she blushing about this time?_ I tried to listen to her surface thoughts and found that she had them shielded. _Damn._

After she unlocked the window, opened it, and took the barrier down, she greeted me and invited me in. Still curious as to why she was blushing I asked, "Why are you blushing onna?" I hadn't seen her put the food in her mouth before I asked that, so I was startled when I heard her start to choke.

Coughing she merely replied with, "No reason."

Not liking the fact that she was lying I walked over to her saying, "You're lying." She obviously hadn't heard me walk across the room judging by the way she yelped and turned around so quickly. Her face showed her surprise at finding me only a foot away. "Tell me why you are blushing onna."

"Why I'm blushing is none of your business." she retorted, glaring at me.

I had been about to tell her that glaring at me wouldn't stop me from getting my question answered, when she started speaking again. "Was there a particular reason you were waiting outside my room? Or were you just continuing your stalking of me for the day?"

"I wasn't stalking you!" I responded back a bit louder than I had meant to. _Why the hell does everyone think I'm stalking her? Wait a minute. She knew I was following her today?_

Suddenly her hand was covering my mouth and my eyes widened as did Ayla's. "Ssh! Don't be so loud. We don't need my family finding out that I have a guy in my bedroom with the door locked." She removed her hand and started to walk away from me.

The moment she had touched me I felt a strange jolt suddenly go through every part of my being. _What the hell was that just now? By the look on Ayla's face she felt the same thing that I just did._ I realized what she had done a moment later and became annoyed. _How dare the onna cover my mouth!_

Just as she got to one of the other doors in her room I spun her around, grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to it. I leaned towards her stopping when our faces were separated by mere inches. She blushed more, this time because of my being so close. "Don't you ever do that again onna." I said harshly.

"What the hell are you talking about? Don't ever do what again?" she asked, confused.

I glared replying, "Putting your hand over my mouth."

A look of disbelief crossed her face before she frowned. She tensed up in annoyance asking, "You do realize how immature you are being right now, right?"

Narrowing my eyes I growled at her, trying to intimidate her. My growling didn't seem to bother her in the slightest, so I decided to turn her phrasing back on her instead. "You do realize how you aren't in a position to be saying things like that right now, right?"

The tension from her annoyance disappeared and she smiled at me. This was the first time I'd been so close to her when she smiled. Even last night at Kurama's when she smiled at me, she'd been across the room. _She really does look more beautiful when she smiles. Her eyes seem to sparkle whenever she does._

I was so stunned by her smile that I couldn't even mentally scold myself for thinking what I had.

Next thing I knew she had placed her hand on my forehead, a worried look on her face. I snapped out of it and backed away from her. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

She blinked, looking confused saying, "I noticed that your face was flushed and I was worried that you were coming down with a cold or something. So I was checking to see if you had a fever, you felt a bit warm so you might have one. Unless your body temperature is like mine and your normal temperature runs slightly higher than most other people's do."

Shaking my head in disbelief, I stared at her. _She was worried that I was sick? But why?_ "My body temperature has always been high. So you are wrong about me having a fever." I told her.

Shrugging she said, "Just wanted to check. I don't want you to be sick." Ayla turned around and opened her closet, walking inside to find some clothes I guess.

I sat down on the window seat and watched her look through her clothes. She didn't take that much time and grabbed a pair of jeans and shoes. Leaving the closet and closing the door she noticed where I was and that I was watching her. She blushed more as I continued to watch her. Apparently she decided that she would try to ignore that I was watching her so closely and walked over to one of her dressers.

The shirt she took out was gray in color and looked like it would be loose on her. _Doesn't she have any clothes that are more feminine? Or are all her clothes what seem to be hand-me-downs from her older brother?_ I found it odd that she seemed to have no female clothes. _Does she only spend her money on books?_ I thought that this was quite possible, seeing how many books she owns.

After she got the shirt she put her shoes by the bedroom door and her shirt on the bed. Next she went into the bathroom with only the jeans she had grabbed. _Wait a minute. She left her shirt out here. Why did she do that when she's changing her clothes?_

A few moments later she came out of the bathroom with her uniform in her arms, ready to be put away. I realized that the reason she had left her shirt out here was because she already had a tank top on. _Must have had that on under her uniform. And it actually fits her form unlike the rest of her clothes._

She hung her uniform up on her closet door, turned out there was a hook on it to hang things. As she did this she asked, "Mind telling me why you were stalking me today Hiei?"

"For the last time I wasn't stalking you onna." I growled.

Turning to me and placing her hands on her hips, she asked, "If you weren't stalking me, what _were_ you doing then?"

I looked out the window and answered, "Observing a possible threat." _I can't tell her the truth. That I'm watching her because I'm trying to figure out what the hell it is about her that draws me to her._

"A possible threat huh? Nice to know what you think of me Hiei." she replied venomously.

Hearing her use that tone of voice made me look back at her. The look of anger on her face didn't surprise me, but the look in her eyes did. Seeing the sadness and hurt in her eyes caused a sharp pain in my chest. _I hurt her. Damn it. Why the hell does it bother me so damn much that I hurt her? She's just a human. I don't care whether I hurt a human or not._

But Ayla wasn't just _any_ human. She was more than that, I just wasn't sure what exactly.

"Get out."

I blinked at her, "What did you...?"

She cut me off, "Get out, right now. I don't want you here at the moment, so leave."

I stared at her and noticed her eyes were filling with tears, sending another sharp pain in my chest. _She's trying to keep from crying. I hurt her that badly?_ Suddenly I wanted to apologize to her for what I had said just now. _What the hell? I apologize to no one._

"Damn it Hiei, I said get out! Leave!" she said, starting to get loud. If she got any louder her family would hear and come see what was going on.

So I did what she told me to. I got up and left. _So much for getting answers this time._

Ayla's POV

Asking Hiei why he had been following me had to be the stupidest thing I've ever done.

'"Observing a possible threat."' Hearing him say that had hurt me in a way I hadn't expected. For some reason it had felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart with a knife and twisted it. I'd almost started crying right after he said that, but I kept myself from doing so...barely. No way was I going to cry while he was there.

When he looked at me I knew he saw the sadness and hurt I felt in my eyes. I've never been able to keep my emotions from showing in my eyes.

My telling him to get out had surprised him, as well as telling him I didn't want him here at the moment. I had gotten to the point where I wouldn't be able to hold my tears back much longer when he finally left after I nearly yelled at him. The moment he was gone I ran over to the window quickly closing it, locking it, and raising the barrier on it.

Only after doing that did I let the tears I'd been holding back flow freely. _How could I have been so stupid? I should never have asked him._

I looked at the clock to check the time. _4:20 huh? That means I only have ten minutes to finish getting my stuff together._ Tears were still falling from my eyes as I made sure I had what I needed for studying.

I noticed that I hadn't eaten very much of my snack. Because I was upset from what happened with Hiei I'd lost what little appetite I had. Still I forced myself to finish the grapes that were left, knowing that I needed to eat.

"Hey Nymph! Time to head next door! So hurry up!" Sinclair yelled from the bottom of my stairs.

"Be there in a sec Sin!" I yelled back.

I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My eyes were slightly red from crying. _I hope no one notices that I've been crying. I really don't want to lie about why I was crying._

I took my glasses off and set them to the side and turned on the cold water. Splashing my face with the water helped make me feel better, not much, but better. I turned the water off, dried my face, and put my glasses back on as I walked to my bed. Putting on my t-shirt I'd laid there earlier I went to my desk again. Grabbing my bag, empty bowl, and shoes before heading downstairs.

The moment my foot left the last step I was tackled by Kira. Needless to say everything I was holding went flying. My bag went in the direction of the living room while my shoes went further down the hall. Mom and the others came running into the room when they heard the crash.

"What happened?" Mom asked.

I was about to answer when the bowl decided it was finally time to land. Unfortunately for me it had chosen to land upside-down on my head.

This of course caused both of my brothers to burst into laughter. Gwen didn't laugh although she did smile. Mom smiled as well while trying not to laugh at what had just happened.

"Besides what just happened with the bowl, what happened to cause you two to crash?" Mom asked again. She knelt beside me and Kira, removing the blasted bowl from my head.

"Pixie happened. I had just gotten off of the stairs when she suddenly tackled me with a hug. She seems to be trying to break my ribs at the moment." I answered with a small grimace. Kira was hugging me so hard that it really did feel like she was trying to break my ribs or at least crack them.

"Kira sweetie, why did you choose to hug Ayla like that?" Mom asked.

None of us could hear what Kira said because she had her face buried in my stomach.

Sinclair and Haku both stopped laughing, while Gwen and Mom had stopped smiling. We all knew that if Kira had her face hidden when she spoke that something was really bothering her.

I wrapped my arms around my baby sister saying in a soft voice, "Kira we couldn't hear what you said just now. Could you please repeat it?"

She didn't let go of me, but she did loosen her grip and look at me. She was crying and said, "You're hurt sissy."

I looked at her confused, "I'm not hurt Pixie. See? I'm fine."

Shaking her head she said, "No sissy you are hurt. You're hurt badly. I know you are. You were crying. I heard you. Even though you were upstairs I heard you cry."

_She heard me crying? But how? Unless...she's an empath._ My eyes widened at that realization.

"What are you talking about Kira?" Haku asked.

I raised my hand to let Haku know to be quiet for a moment. Swallowing I asked, "Kira? Are you hearing a strange melody that's sad?"

Mom looked at me in shock, as did my other siblings. They knew that I referred to emotions as melodies and realized exactly what I was asking Kira.

Kira nodded her head, sniffling a little.

"How long have you been hearing melodies?"

"Ever since I can remember. But they aren't that loud. The only ones that get loud are the ones from you, Mommy, Daddy, Haku, Gwennie, and Sin." she answered.

"What about Grandma Genkai?" I asked.

"Her too."

Looking at Mom I said, "Mom? You might want to call Grandma Genkai and let her know that I won't be coming alone this weekend."


	8. Not Quite The Truth?

_**TheHeartsPath: Hey everyone! I'd like to thank those who have reviewed. Many thanks to White Fanged Wolf, perfect-piscies, Dragon of Twilight, and Tsuki Koi! I tried to make it easier to read by putting what the charaters say on different lines like Dragon of Twilight suggested. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to do it without my computer having a conniption. Which is part of what took so long for me to write this chapter. So instead I tried making the paragraphs smaller. I hope it helps make reading the story easier. ^_^ Here's the next chapter! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 8: Not Quite The Truth?**

Kurama's POV

_They're late._

I thought this as I sat in the dining room and looked at the clock which read 4:40 pm. _They live right next door. What could be taking them so long?_ I was starting to get a little worried as to what could be keeping them, but figured that they'd explain once they got here. Kokoda had told Mother and I that Gwen and Sinclair would also be coming over for the study group that the four of them had apparently made on their way home from school.

Hearing some mumbling I glaced over at Kuwabara who was working on a math problem. He'd actually been five minutes late since he had ended up running back to his house to get his math homework after leaving Reikai. The portal Koenma had made for us to get back to Ningenkai had taken us to the park, which is closer to my house than either Yusuke's or Kuwabara's.

Koenma hadn't been too happy about Hiei not being there. He explained our newest mission to the three of us and asked that I tell Hiei the details of it. Turned out our mission involved a certain person that all four of us had already met.

Looking back at the clock, I thought back to our meeting with Koenma and what he told us.

_**FLASHBACK: EARLIER TODAY**_

We had just stepped through the portal right into Koenma's office. Koenma was sitting at his desk in his toddler form stamping papers, while Botan was standing beside his desk. Botan smiled and waved to us in greeting. I smiled and nodded a greeting in return.

Yusuke spoke first, "Alright toddler we're here. What is it this time?"

One of Koenma's eyes twitched, he really hated it when Yusuke called him that. Looking at the three of us he noticed someone missing and scowled. "Where's Hiei? I specifically said that I wanted all four of you to come." he stated.

"We couldn't find the shrimp anywhere Koenma." Kuwabara said with a shrug.

Sighing and shaking his head Koenma looked at me, "Kurama you'll have to be the one to fill him in on this new mission."

"Of course." I replied.

"Now your mission is a simple one. It involves helping Genkai protect and train her granddaughter who..." Koenma started explaining but was interrupted.

"Are you talking about Ayla?" Kuwabara asked loudly.

Blinking in surprise at Kuwabara, Koenma nodded, "Yes, that's her name. But how is it that you already know it?"

"Me and Kuwabara just met her about ten minutes ago at Kurama's old school." Yusuke answered.

"She and her family are my new neighbors. She and I met last night when her family came over. We spoke about her abilities a little. Hiei also made her acquaintance last night." I added.

"Oh dear." Botan said, looking slightly worried.

"Tell me he didn't try to kill her." Koenma pleaded, looking and sounding worried.

"No, he didn't try to kill her." I replied trying not to let my exasperation show. _I admit Hiei's temper does get the better of him at times. But it doesn't mean that he's going to try and kill everyone that he meets...Just the majority of them unfortunately._ Mentally I winced at that last part of my thoughts.

Looking relieved, Koenma cleared his throat, "As I was saying, your mission is to help protect and train Ayla. Currently she has the powers of a psychic which she inherited from her father, who is Genkai's son. She also has telepathic and empathic powers. Having both of these powers is very rare."

"Kurama said something about that earlier. How is having both those powers rare?" Yusuke asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Because Yusuke, the only race to have ever had both of those powers at once was wiped out five thousand years ago. That race was also a demon one. Which makes having both those powers at once even rarer seeing as she's human." Koenma replied.

"Is it possible that she's like Yusuke? A human with a demon ancestor? Whose demon blood has yet to awaken fully because her power level is not yet strong enough?" I asked.

"Oh great, that's just what we need. Another person who could have demon blood from an ancestor for that bastard Yama to try and have killed." Yusuke muttered angrily. Yusuke still hates King Yama for ordering his death just because he is a descendant of the Mazoku, and becoming a halfbreed. Actually, all of us hate King Yama for that.

"That _is_ a possibility. I'm having my people check her blood line to see if she has a demon ancestor even as we speak. I want to be prepared in case she does have demon blood that is still dormant." Koenma responded, glancing in Yusuke's direction, but otherwise ignoring his angry muttering.

"Now Genkai has taught her how to control these powers, but lately her energy has been changing. So we believe that she may have other powers that are about to awaken. Genkai informed me that when a new power awakens, Ayla's control of her other powers becomes unstable. Thus, her ability to protect herself from others with abilities is impaired. This is where the four of you come in. While she's learning basic control of whatever new power awakens, you boys will be keeping an eye out for anyone who might want to take advantage of the instability of her powers." Koenma explained.

"I get the whole protecting her part, but what about the training part?" Kuwabara asked.

"Simple Kuwabara, we will most likely be training her to use her new powers in combat. That is what you meant by us training her, is it not Koenma?" I said.

"That's correct Kurama." Koenma replied before continuing, "Genkai is having Ayla come to the temple this weekend to tell her about the Reikai and Makai. You boys are to meet up there as well. That way you can expalin who and what you are, what you do and your current mission to Ayla."

"You make it sound like Ayla doesn't know about demons or the spirit world." Yusuke said.

"That's because she doesn't."

"WHAT?! She's Genkai's granddaughter, has powers of her own, and has no clue about the spirit or demon worlds?! Why the hell not?!" Yusuke questioned rather loudly, leaning over the desk and into Koenma's face.

I had learned to stand off to the side instead of near Yusuke during mission briefings. Seeing as he has a tendency to yell at Koenma...a lot.

Sighing, Koenma rubbed his temples, probably trying to fight off a headache from Yusuke's outburst. "The reason she doesn't know is because Genkai wanted her to have as close to a normal childhood as she could. She didn't want Ayla to get mixed up with demons until she had enough knowledge of martial arts and her powers to be able to protect herself. From the demons who would want to kill her just for being the granddaughter of Genkai. Which is also why she told her son and daughter-in-law that they should live in America. There aren't as many really strong psychics over there as there are in Japan. Thus, demons aren't as likely to be there, seeing as there are no strong psychics to either steal techniques from or feed off of. Before she met Kurama and Hiei last night, Ayla had never come into contact with a demon before. Only a few other humans with abilities." Koenma stated.

"That makes sense to me." Kuwabara spoke up. Both Yusuke and I looked at him in surpise. "What?" he asked, looking back at us.

"I'm just really surprised that you got what he said." Yusuke said in a taunting manner.

"Shut up Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Actually it makes quite a bit of sense that Kuwabara understands why Genkai did what she did." I said, when I realized _why_ it had made sense to Kuwabara.

"Really? And why is that fox boy?" Yusuke asked me, his brow furrowed in slight confusion.

"Because unlike you, Kuwabara grew up sensing and seeing things that others couldn't. Thus, knowing what it's like to not live what most people would consider a 'normal' childhood." I answered, looking Yusuke in the eyes.

"Oh."

"Now who's coming up with that as their best Urameshi?" Kuwabara said with a grin.

"Shut up!" Yusuke responded.

I couldn't help but chuckle at Kuwabara getting back at Yusuke for earlier when he had responded in the exact same manner to something Ayla had said.

"You said that Genkai told her son and daughter-in-law that they should live in America for Ayla's safety. Does that mean that they know about her ablilities and demons?" I questioned, looking back at Koenma.

"Both Ayla's parents and siblings know about her abilities. But only Aya and Natala know about demons." Koenma answered.

"Who?" both Yusuke and Kuwabara asked.

"Aya is Ayla's father while Natala is her mother. However, they don't know as much about demons as Genkai does, so they followed her advice about where to live and not telling their children about demons until they were older." Focusing on me, Koenma ordered, "Now then, Kurama, since Ayla is your neighbor I want you to keep an eye out for any demons that might want to try something. I want Hiei to do the same thing as well when he is in the area."

Nodding I said, "Of course. By the way, after school today Ayla shall be coming to my house for me to help tutor her in math along with Kuwabara. Do you want us to keep quiet about this until this weekend or may we tell her sooner?"

"Keep quiet for now. Genkai wants to be the one to fill her in about the Reikai and Makai, and to tell her why she chose to wait to tell her. Since she can sense the difference in peoples' energies you can tell her about your abilities if she asks, just don't mention anything about demons." Koenma advised.

"Understood."

"Well that's everything for the time being. If we find anything about her having a demon ancestor I'll have Botan inform you immediately." Koenma said, before opening a portal back to Ningenkai and leaning back in his chair.

"Right, right. You do that toddler." Yusuke replied.

"Yusuke when are you going to stop calling Koenma that?" Botan asked with her hands on her hips.

"Hmm, I don't know. Maybe when you stop saying bingo all the time?" Yusuke said sarcastically with a grin before walking through the portal. Kuwabara laughed and went next.

"Ugh, that boy..." Botan sighed.

"Well that's Yusuke for you." I said with a small smile.

Botan giggled, "True."

I waved goodbye and walked through the portal.

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Just as I finished that thought the doorbell rang. "Kokoda, could you get the door please?" my mother asked.

"Sure thing Mom." Kokoda replied.

"Ayla's at the door." Kuwabara said.

Looking away from the clock once more, I turned to Kuwabara, "Yes she is. I felt her energy as well. Now remember Kuwabara, don't say anything about her energy unless it's just the three of us in the room, alright?"

Nodding his head he answered, "No problem."

_Even saying that I have the feeling that Ayla will ask Kuwabara about his energy being different before he asks her about hers._

Kokoda and the others came into the dining room just then.

Gwen saw me, smiled and blushed, "Hi Shuichi."

Returning her smile I replied, "Hello Gwen."

Sinclair snorted and groaned, "Not again."

I looked at him, "Hello to you too Sinclair. And you as well Ayla."

"That's better." Sinclair said with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes at her brother's behavior Ayla said, "Hi Shuichi. Hey Kazuma, already working on fighting the enemy?"

"The enemy? Oh right, the math. Yeah, I'm working on kicking its' butt." Kuwabara replied laughing.

"Hang on, when did you meet that guy Ayla?" Sinclair asked, pointing at Kuwabara.

"After you, Kokoda, and Gwen went back inside after lunch. And his name isn't 'that guy,' his name is Kazuma Kuwabara. He and another guy named Yusuke Urameshi had been looking for Shuichi. We introduced ourselves to each other and talked for a bit. Somehow math got brought up and Kazuma here asked Shuichi if he'd mind taking on another person to tutor in math. And as you can tell Shuichi agreed, so here we are." Ayla explained.

"You're being more social, that's good." Gwen said with a grin.

"Hey, I've always been social. It's other people that don't like being social with me." Ayla retorted.

Mother came into the room just as Ayla said that last bit. Smiling at our neighbors she greeted them, "Hello Gwen, Sinclair, Ayla. We were beginning to wonder why you weren't here yet."

Ayla cringed slightly before rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish look. _Why did Ayla cringe just now?_ "Sorry 'bout that. It's my fault we're late."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Sinclair and I were waiting for Ayla to come downstairs so we could come over. As she was coming down the stairs she slipped and fell down them." Gwen said.

"My goodness! Are you alright?" Mother asked Ayla worriedly.

Nodding her head Ayla said, "Yeah I'm alright. I only fell down the last few steps so all I got was a few bruises."

"So that's why you were late?" Kuwabara asked.

"Not exactly." Sinclair said, "When Ayla fell down the stairs Kira had just walked into the hallway where the stairs are and saw Ayla fall."

"Dang that must have scared Kira bad." Kokoda said.

Ayla nodded sadly, "Yeah, I ended up scaring her pretty badly when I fell. She was crying and hugging me and wouldn't let go. It took me and Mom awhile to get her to calm down enough so I could come over."

"Oh the poor dear. I hope she doesn't have nightmares from that." Mother said.

A small smile came onto Ayla's face, "Kira told me she's going to be sleeping in my bed for the rest of the week."

Snickering Sinclair added, "Not to mention she won't let you go up or down the stairs unless she's with you."

"Oh hush up Sin." Ayla said with a glare in his direction. Mother and I smiled, while Kokoda laughed.

From the way their scents had only changed slightly I knew that part of what they said was true. I could sense that her energy had changed slightly from the way it had been last night. Not so much that she would lose complete control of her ablilities yet, but maybe enough for her control to slip occasionally.

_Some part of what they are saying isn't quite the truth. Unfortunately I am unable to tell which parts are true and which are false. I wonder if what actually happened had to do with Ayla's abilities. From what Koenma told us her family knows about her abilities. So it is quite possible that they are trying to make sure that no one finds out what actually happened._

"Um, not to interrupt, but who the heck is Kira?" Kuwabara asked, looking confused.

I turned to him, "Kira is Ayla's little sister. She also has a little brother named Haku."

He blinked and looked at Ayla, "Just how many siblings do you have?"

Chuckling, Ayla answered, "Only four. I'm the middle child of five."

"Holy crap!" Kuwabara yelped. Everyone laughed at Kuwabara's surprise.

"So how should we do this exactly? I know that Kuwabara and Ayla both need my help with math, but other than that I must admit that I am rather clueless." I said.

"Good question. Ayla how did science go for you? Anything give you a lot of trouble?" Gwen asked.

Shaking her head, Ayla replied, "I got what the teacher said, I just don't understand a couple of the formulas. You can help me with those later since it shouldn't take long to explain them."

"Okay. Kokoda, Sinclair, how about we go to another room to work on science for now?"

"Sounds good to me. That way Shuichi can help these two with their math." Sinclair agreed.

"We can go to the living room to work." Kokoda said.

"Actually how about you kids use the study? I need to clean the living room. I knocked over one of the flower pots a few minutes ago, making a bit of a mess. After I clean up I'll fix a snack for everyone." Mother said.

Kokoda nodded, "Okay Mom. Follow me guys, I'll show you where the study is." With that Kokoda, Gwen, and Sinclair left for the study, while Mother went to the living room.

Ayla sat down and got her math homework out, grimacing as she did so.

"Not looking forward to going against the math are you?" I asked her with a small smile.

She looked at me with an eyebrow raised, "Would you look forward to going against something that constantly thwarts all your attempts to understand it?"

I blinked in surprise, then chuckled, "Touché."

"Man, she got you Shuichi." Kuwabara laughed.

_Indeed, she did. It would seem Hiei isn't the only one that has to watch out for her way with words. I will have to as well._

Ayla's POV

We worked on math for a few minutes before my curiosity about Kazuma's energy got the better of me. I glanced up from my math and asked, "Hey Kazuma? Could I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" he replied, looking at me.

"Are you a psychic?"

"Yeah actually I am. You a psychic too? Cause your energy kinda feels different from the others I've felt."

I nodded, "Yep, although according to Grandma Genkai I'm not your typical psychic."

"Are you saying that _the_ Genkai is your grandmother?" he asked. His Heart's Song was acting up all of a sudden, giving off nervousness and worry. The types that come from when a person is either lying or just not being completely truthful.

I looked him in the eye and said, "You already know that she is, so please don't act like you don't." Both his and Shuichi's eyes widened in surprise or shock, I wasn't sure which, at what I had said. I looked at Shuichi and asked, "You were the one who told him that Genkai is my grandmother, am I right?"

"Yes. I told both him and Yusuke actually." Shuichi answered.

"Did you tell Hiei as well?"

"Yes."

Narrowing my eyes, I asked angrily, "Mind telling me exactly _why_ you told them?"

He winced, obviously hearing the anger in my voice. "They had all sensed the difference in your energy on their own and were wondering if you were related to any other psychics that they knew. All four of us know Genkai personally so I told them about your relation to her."

Something told me that part of what he said wasn't quite the truth, but the other part was. _Question is which part? Them wondering if I was related to anyone they knew or them knowing Grandma Genkai personally._

I had figured that all of them had sensed the difference in my energy, and if they hadn't...well then they were complete idiots. From what I knew of Shuichi and Hiei they were far from the 'idiot' category. Kazuma and Yusuke I wasn't so sure of yet.

So far Shuichi was in the 'good person you can trust so far' category.

Kazuma was in the 'nice person' category. Seeing as his Heart's Song was one of a person with a kind and caring heart. The fact that he'd also asked Shuichi if he could tutor me in math had won him some points as well.

Yusuke was in the 'not enough information' category where everyone starts out. Even though his Heart's Song was of a good person I still had only met him once.

And Hiei...honestly I wasn't sure what damn category he was in. All I did know was that I trusted him wholeheartedly and that I found him to be attractive, but that was about it. The best I could come up with for him is the 'hell if I know' category.

Apparently I still didn't look too pleased because Shuichi added, "I wouldn't have told them if I didn't have complete trust in them Ayla. You may even listen to my thoughts if that will make you believe me."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. _What the hell? Did he just?_ Blinking at him in complete surprise I asked, "Did you actually just give me _permission_ to listen to your thoughts?" _I couldn't have heard him correctly._

"Yes I did." he calmly replied.

_Okay, guess I did hear him correctly._ Shaking my head, I answered, "I don't have to."

Now he was the one that was surprised, "I don't understand."

Leaning back in my chair, I looked at my lap. _How should I put this?_ Looking back at Shuichi I asked, "Remember last night, how I told you I was able to tell that you were a good guy within the short amount of time we had known each other?"

He nodded, waiting for me to continue.

Taking a deep breath I said, "When I listened to your Heart's Song I knew you were a trustworthy person. And the fact that you just gave me permission to listen to your thoughts just now shows me that you trust me. What I don't get is why. I'm a telepath, whom you have barely known for more than a day, and yet you trust me. Trust me enough to give me permission to listen to your thoughts. No one just gives permission to a telepath like that. Especially not for something that isn't life threatening like this. Unless they trust that telepath and I mean _really_ trust them. Which in and of itself is basically unheard of."

After I finished I realized that I said more than I meant to and not just in words. _Dammit! I hope that neither Shuichi or Kazuma are good at reading between the lines._ But I knew that hope was in vain. I didn't have to listen to their thoughts or Heart's Songs to know that they knew what I wasn't saying in words.

Their faces and eyes said as much.

I couldn't keep looking at them so I returned my gaze to my lap. It was then that I realized that Hiei was still nearby. _He must be in one of the trees outside. Wonder if he can somehow hear our conversation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he is somehow listening._

"You've never had anyone that wasn't family trust you like that have you Ayla?" Kazuma asked gently. Distracted from my thoughts by his question I stiffened, and continued looking at my lap.

Both of their Heart's Songs were full of pity and caring. There was also sympathy coming from Kazuma. I guessed that he knew what it was like to not be trusted for being different. _I don't want your pity! But why...why do you care about me? How can you care about me? All you guys really know about me is 'what' I am. Not 'who' I am._

Clenching my hands I said, "No, at least...not in a very long time." There had only been one person outside of the family that I had ever truly trusted before coming to Japan. She had been my first _real_ friend...my _best_ friend.

Fiona MacAlister had been one of the few people I had met with abilities. She had also happened to be the strongest one. Both telepathic and telekinetic, she had been the first person who understood me for who and what I am, and I the same for her. The combination of abilities she had wasn't common, but it wasn't as rare as mine either according to Grandma Genkai.

_Fiona...Oh how I wish you were still alive._


	9. Glimpse Of The Past

_**TheHeartsPath: Hello again everyone! Chapter 9 has arrived! Part of me still can't believe that I'm the one actually writing this. LOL Anyone else ever felt like that about a story they're writing? Please read and reivew! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 9: Glimpse Of The Past**

_**FLASHBACK: 9 YEARS AGO**_

We were eight years old when we first met. She had just transferred to my school. I was already sat down at my desk when I sensed her energy and looked at the classroom door.

Standing there in the doorway, looking at me with surprise on her face was Fiona. Though I didn't know her name at that time. She had obviously sensed me as well. She was a beautiful girl from Ireland with white-blond hair and dark blue eyes. She looked like some fragile porcelain doll, that would break if you dropped it.

Later that same day though I found out Fiona was _anything_ but fragile.

Like usual during recess the other kids started bullying me about being different. I had ignored them as best I could until I had to go inside to use the bathroom. As I was heading back outside one of them shoved me into an empty classroom and they started hitting me. Getting beat up every now and then was nothing new to me.

But it was the first time there had been more than two people hitting me at once. I could get away when there were only two, but not when there was five of them like that day. Malcolm and Jane were the ones that beat me up occasionally, but today they had brought help. This time William, Paul, and Debbie were there. All five of them were in my class and hated me.

Scared because I couldn't get away, I had curled up into a ball to try and protect my stomach and head as best I could. Telepathically, I called to Gwen and Sinclair to come and save me.

I didn't know that someone else had also heard my plea for help.

The next thing I knew one of the people who had been beating me cried out in pain. The rest stopped what they were doing to see what had caused their friend to cry out. I lifted my head enough to try and see as well. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Fiona. She was standing next to the kid that had cried out. It was Paul and he had a bloody nose from Fiona punching him.

"Leave 'er alone." Fiona said.

"Why should we? She's nothing but a freak." Malcolm said.

"Yeah, you're new here so you don't know. Ayla here is a monster. She says she hears peoples' thoughts and emotions. A monster like her doesn't know her place so she has to be taught a lesson." said Jane with a sneer.

Fiona then spoke in a voice that was whisper soft, yet rather frightening, "Ye say she be a monster. But do ye know wot? Th' only monsters I be seein' 'ere be ye scum. Only monsters gang up on a person an' beat 'em up. Th' lot of ye make me sick." As she spoke objects around the room started shaking, then floating. Not just small objects either, all the desks started to float as well.

The five who had been beating on me got really scared and started screaming.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Debbie screeched.

"Th' lot of ye scum bet'er get out of 'ere b'fore I really lose me temper an' start sendin' these 'ere objects in yer direction." Fiona said glaring at them.

"Oh my god! She's a monster too!" William yelled.

"Tha's right. I not be tha' much differ'nt from Ayla. NOW GET OUT AND LEAVE AYLA ALONE!" Fiona shouted.

Needless to say they didn't need to be told twice.

Once they were gone, everything that was floating landed back where it had been before. Fiona then came over to me and asked, "Are ye alright?"

Nodding my head, I started crying and hugged her. "You helped me. Thank you so much Fiona!"

She hugged me back, then pushed me away from her enough so that she could see my face and smiled. "Well now ye know," she started, "us freaks 'ave got ta stick toget'er and help one 'nother out. Right?"

I smiled back at her and answered, "Right!"

A moment later both Gwen and Sinclair came with a teacher hot on their heels. "AYLA!" they yelled, running to my side.

"What'd you do to our sister?!" Sinclair yelled at Fiona while Gwen was checking to see how bad I was hurt.

"Leave her alone Sinclair! She didn't do this!" I yelled at him.

The teacher asked, "Alright, what happened and who did it?"

I tried to stand up but fell when pain shot up my back. Fiona caught me, "Whoa Ayla! Dinna try ta stand up! They got ye pretty badly ye know."

"They?" Gwen asked, "It was Malcolm and Jane again wasn't it?"

Nodding I answered, "Yeah, but this time they had William, Paul, and Debbie with them."

Sinclair was pissed and started to leave the room. Probably to go and beat the crap out of all of them for beating on his baby sister. The teacher stopped him, telling him that he needed Sinclair to help Gwen and Fiona take me to the nurse's office.

To this day I still have no idea if Malcolm, Jane, and their friends told the teacher about the floating objects. But Fiona and I told my parents and siblings and her mother the truth about what had happened. My family happily accepted Fiona and her mother happily accepted me as well.

After that day we were practically inseparable. Not only did we think of each other as best friends, we thought of each other as sisters. We may not have been blood sisters, but we were sisters where it mattered the most, in our hearts.

We told each other what our abilities were and thought it was really cool that both of us were telepathic. Anything that we could think of to do together we did. It didn't matter if it was hanging out, eating lunch, doing homework, training our abilities with Grandma Genkai when she visited, or whatever. There were even times where we would have telepathic conversations when the other was across town.

For two years we looked out for, protected, confided, and comforted each other.

It was during this time that Gwen had said my eye color made her think of a forest nymph. Fiona had been the first to call me Nymph. I started calling her Fairy after that. She didn't like it at first but she got used to it. Kira asked us to give her a nickname when she turned three, so we came up with Pixie.

In our pasts both of us had people stab us in the back after saying they were our friends. We made a promise to each other to never abandon nor ever betray the other. The trust we had in each other was absolute.

But then _it_ happened. The accident.

She had gotten on the train with her mom to visit her grandparents during spring break. Somehow the train got derailed and a lot of people died. The compartment that Fiona and her mother had been in had not only rolled down a cliff, but had also had boulders land on it. Their bodies had been crushed beyond recognition according to the authorities.

When my parents told me what had happened I was devastated. My friend, my _first_ friend, my _best_ friend, my heart's sister...was dead and gone forever. Never again would we see, hug, laugh, cry, confide, comfort each other, or do anything together. There was no one outside of my family that I would give my trust to again.

It was then that I stopped trusting in people.

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Ayla's POV

I came out of my reverie of the past and looked at Shuichi and Kazuma.

"You said you found me to be a trustworthy person. But from what you said a moment ago, about not having trusted someone outside your family in a very long time. It's obviously going to take time for you to truly trust us." Shuichi said in a soft voice.

I think he was trying to make me feel at ease by speaking softly. It was working, albeit only a little. "Yes. It will take time for me to trust you, Kazuma, and Yusuke." I conceded.

"How come you didn't mention the shrimp?" Kazuma asked.

I blinked at him, "Who?"

"That's what Kuwabara refers to Hiei as sometimes I'm afraid." Shuichi answered with a sigh.

"I see." _He must call Hiei that cause of how short he is._ "Last I checked Hiei wasn't a crustacean. So don't refer to him as one." I said, frowning at Kazuma, "Besides, I'm not that much taller than he is so I find so-called jokes or puns about height annoying."

Shuichi smiled, looking like he was trying not to laugh. Apparently he found part or all of what I just said amusing.

"I'll call him a shrimp if I want to." Kazuma responded.

I rolled my eyes and smirked, "You sounded like a little kid just now. Don't you know that you should act your age and not your shoe size Kazuma?"

A chuckle escaped from Shuichi before he made it into a coughing noise as Kazuma glared at him. Clearing his throat, Shuichi looked at me. His eyes were sparkling with amusement when he asked, "Aren't you going to answer Kuwabara's question?"

"Uh...I would if I remembered what the question was." I said quietly, slightly embarrassed that I had actually forgotten the question.

"He asked you why you didn't mention Hiei when you said it would take time to trust me, himself, and Yusuke. I must admit, I'm rather curious about it as well." Shuichi informed me.

"Oh...um well, you see...uh," I stuttered. _What the hell is wrong with me? It's nothing more than a simple question. No need to stutter. So dammit Ayla, pull yourself together!_

Shuichi had raised an eyebrow at my stuttering, but said nothing.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried once more to answer the question. _And this time NO stuttering._ "The reason I didn't mention Hiei's name is because for some damn reason that eludes me, I trust him. Trust him wholeheartedly to be exact." _Now that wasn't so hard now was it?_

Opening my eyes I saw that Shuichi had a thoughtful look, while Kazuma looked like his eyes were going to pop right out of his head. "You trust the shrimp?" Kazuma yelped. Amazingly enough he wasn't loud.

I growled, stood up, and walked around the table. Once I was beside Kazuma I stopped and glared at him with my arms crossed. With him sitting down our eyes met without either of us having to tilt our heads. That was totally not fair. I wanted to glare _down_ at him.

But alas, when you're short you can't glare down at someone unless you are on a hill, a few stairs higher, on another floor up, or the most humiliating one of all...standing on a box. Since we were inside there were no hills. Here in the dining room there were no stairs, meaning no other floor either. So both of those were out too. And if there was a box in this house, there was no way in hell I'd humiliate myself by standing on it.

We who are short do have our pride after all.

"What did I say about referring to Hiei as a crustacean?" I asked through slightly, clenched teeth.

Blinking at me in confusion he answered, "Uh, you said not to. But I said..."

I cut him off, "I know what you said Kazuma. And I think you are acting like an idiot. Now because you're acting like an idiot, I'm going to do something I do to those who act like idiots."

"I'm not an idiot!" he retorted loudly. Though not quite loud enough to bring Shiori from the living room.

Raising an eyebrow I said, "I never said you _were_ an idiot. I only said that you were _acting_ like one."

He grumbled saying, "Whatever." Then he asked, "And what the heck did you mean you were gonna do something that you do to idiots?"

"Do to those that _act_ like idiots." I corrected him shrugging, "And just this." I then smacked him in the back of the head. Not hard enough to make his face meet the table, but hard enough that his head would be sore for at least five minutes, if not more.

"Hey!" Kazuma yelped. He rubbed the area that I had smacked and glared at me.

_I'm seriously beginning to think that Kazuma should be in the 'nice person, but also an idiot' category._

I noticed that Shuichi looked like he was torn between amusement and exasperation. Both were probably caused by the way Kazuma and I were acting. Smiling sheepishly at him I went back to my seat and started trying to work on my math again.

"Are the two of you quite finished?" Shuichi asked politely, though there was definitely a bit of a strain in his voice.

"Guess so." Kazuma answered.

I stayed silent.

"Well Ayla?" Shuichi asked.

I looked at him, "Hm?"

"I asked are you quite finished?"

"No, I'm not finished. I've still got a ton of math to do." I responded, knowing very well that he wasn't asking about math.

Sighing he said, "Ayla..."

"What? It's the truth."

"You know that wasn't what he meant." Kazuma said with a frown.

"I know." I chirped while smirking.

Shuichi shook his head, "Then why did you answer as you did?"

"I plead the fifth." I answered, looking back at the vile thing called math.

There was a couple seconds of silence before Shuichi spoke again. "You aren't ever going to say that you're done are you?" he asked.

"Nope." I responded cheerfully, still smirking.

He chuckled at my response.

"What does she mean by 'plead the fifth'?" Kazuma asked.

"It refers to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Which was ratified in 1791, guaranteeing due process of law and that no person "shall be forced to testify against himself"." I answered.

"Huh?"

I sighed and let my forehead land on the table with a thump. I was _not_ going to repeat myself.

"It's a way for a person to say that they won't answer a question that goes against them." Shuichi supplied.

I had lifted my head up to watch Shuichi explain to Kazuma what 'pleading the fifth' meant in simpler terms. And here I had thought giving a dictionary like answer had been simple terms. Apparently answers like that aren't quite simple enough for Kazuma.

"Oh...But if it's from the U.S. Constitution then it doesn't work here right?" Kazuma asked.

"I have no idea if it would work for a legal situation here, I wouldn't think so though. But it's also used as a figure of speech in normal conversations that have no legal connections." Shuichi answered.

"Oh."

Hearing Kazuma's response of 'Oh' again made me exasperated enough that I let my head once again hit the table with a thump.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that dear." Shiori said from behind me.

I yelped, jumping in surprise at her speaking. Because of my reaction I sent my chair backwards with me still in it. Needless to say it wasn't a quiet landing, nor was it dignified. I ended up with my feet in the air and the back of my head painfully making its acquaintance with the floor.

"My goodness! Are you alright Ayla?" Shiori asked me as she came and knelt beside me. She had that worried look that all mothers get when they see a child, regardless of the child being their own or not, hurt.

I'd hit my head hard enough to become disoriented. Blinking up at Shiori I started to say the first thing that came to mind, "That hurt like he-...uh I mean...Ow?" Thankfully I had stopped myself from cursing. For some reason cursing in Shiori's presence just didn't feel right. "I'm alright Shiori. Just gonna have a nasty headache for a while." I said, answering her question.

She still looked worried, not that I could blame her.

Heavy footsteps were coming from my right, behind Shiori. Which meant it was probably my siblings and Kokoda coming from the study to see what the noise was.

"What happened?" Kokoda asked.

_Wow, what do you know I was right. I must be psychic._ I blinked and mentally slapped myself. _Just great, I'm making puns about myself. Must have hit my head hard enough to knock some sense out of myself._

Gwen came and stood near my head, looking down at me. Then looking at Shiori she asked, "I'm gonna guess someone startled her and she flipped her chair in surprise. Am I right?"

"Yes. All I did was speak from the doorway and she jumped in surprise." Shiori answered.

Looking at me again, Gwen said, "You really need to learn to control yourself when someone surprises you."

I glared at her and retorted, "Well _excuse_ me for being more focused on a conversation than on my surroundings. I was just trying to be polite."

Sinclair came into view and asked, "Didn't Grams teach you to be aware of your surroundings no matter what you were doing?"

My eye twitched at his question. "Oh hush up." Since no one was standing to my left I swung my legs in that direction. I rolled to my feet and stood up all in one motion.

Unfortunately my equilibrium had other ideas and decided to have me fall flat on my ass. _Okay...no standing up for a few minutes. Head does not like that at the moment._ The entire room was trying to spin and tilt all at once. _Damn I didn't think I hit my head that hard._

"It would probably be best if you didn't stand up so quickly Ayla. After all, you did just hit your head and rather hard at that." Shuichi said, concern evident in his voice.

"No, you think? I just figured that the room spun and tilted because it meant I was perfectly fine." I sarcastically replied.

"Ayla!" Gwen fussed at me.

I looked at Shuichi and saw that his eyes weren't showing the slight hurt that I heard in his Heart's Song. Sighing I apologized, "I'm sorry Shuichi. It's just that whenever I get hurt I sometimes get sarcastic. This is one of those times and you just happened to be the one I ended up being a jerk to."

"Yeah don't let it get to you dude. Just be glad she only got plain sarcastic instead of pissed off sarcastic. That's when you should worry about what she says." Sinclair said.

"Apology accepted Ayla." Shuichi said with a small smile.

"Sinclair? Did you just call my brother 'dude'?" Kokoda asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Sinclair answered.

"I've never heard anyone call him that before." Kokoda responded with a laugh.

"I don't believe anyone _has_ ever called me that before." Shuichi said.

"Well now you have." Sinclair said smirking.

Holding my aching head in both my hands I said, "If y'all are done with your 'who has called who what before' conversation, could someone help me up? Cause I don't really trust my equilibrium at this point in time."

"I'll help you up." Kazuma said as he came around the table. Putting his hands under my arms, he lifted me up easily.

Too easily. My feet weren't even touching the ground. Glancing down I saw that my feet were a good foot and a half to two feet from the ground. It was kinda hard to tell. There are times I hate weighing barely over a hundred pounds. This was one of those times.

"You barely weigh anything!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide.

I just looked at him and found myself looking him right in the eye. Kazuma was holding me at frigging eye level. "Yeah, uh huh, that's great. Could you _please_ put me down now? I'd like to sit down in a chair instead of hanging here in the air, like a piece of laundry on a clothesline." I said, trying my hardest not to glare at him. However, I couldn't keep my right eye from twitching in annoyance.

He blinked and grinned sheepishly, "Right. Sorry bout that." Gently he lowered me to the ground, like he was afraid I was going to break or something.

Someone had righted my chair, no idea who. I sat down and Shiori checked the back of my head to see how bad I'd hit it. When she touched the area I'd hit, I winced. "Kokoda could you please get the ice bag, fill it, and give it to Ayla?" Shiori asked him.

"Sure thing Mom." Kokoda answered and left the room.

"Now Ayla, when Kokoda gives the ice bag to you, I want you to put it on the back of your head alright? You've got a lump about the size of a golf ball." she told me.

"Alright." I agreed with a small grimace. Putting the ice on my head was gonna make it hurt worse before it made it feel better. Oh well.

"Well I best get to work on fixing that snack I said I'd make." Shiori said.

"I'll help you Ms. Shiori." Gwen offered.

Shiori smiled, "Thank you Gwen. I'd love the help. And please, just call me Shiori."

"Okay Shiori." Gwen said with a smile of her own.

They went into the kitchen and started working. Kokoda came back a moment later with the ice bag and handed it to me. I thanked him and held it to the area of my head that had the lump. Once the snack, which was a delicious mixed fruit dish, had been made and eaten, we all went back to our homework. Shuichi, Kazuma, and I didn't talk about anything but math after that. Kazuma left right after we finished.

Shuichi had asked me if I had spoken to Hiei at all today. I told him I had spoken to him and that I was upset with him. He was going to say something else but I told him I didn't want to talk about it. Shuichi nodded, said he was going to work on something in the garden, and went outside. Though I had a feeling he was also going to ask Hiei what the hell he'd done to upset me.

I went into the living room and saw that Gwen, Sinclair, and Kokoda had moved there from the study. We worked on the rest of our homework without any interruptions. Once everything was finished, we all agreed that this had gone really well and decided to continue to do this throughout the school year. Having done that we all said our goodbyes and headed to our house.

Dad was home and both he and Mom wanted to know how it had gone. I left Gwen and Sinclair to tell them how it went and headed for my room to lay down until dinner. It had been long enough after I hit my head that it was safe for me to do so.

I was about to open the door that lead to the small winding stairway that went to my bedroom door, when the door to the room that Kira and Gwen shared opened. Kira came out and took my hand. Smiling at her, I continued to my room and we went in. Earlier when I had told the Minamino's and Kazuma that Kira was going to be sleeping in my bed for the rest of the week I wasn't lying. She went and laid on my bed while I put my book bag on my desk and turned my stereo on.

The music was Celtic, something that I found to be very soothing on days like this. Days that seemed to almost come from hell itself. First day at a new school with teachers and students giving me hell, my senses going crazy, Hiei being an asshole, finding out that my baby sister is an empath, dealing with math, having people I'd just met ask about me trusting them, remembering Fiona, whacking the hell out of my head, and having my weight (or lack there of) commented on.

Worse than one of my typical days...though not by much.

_Well here's hoping that the rest of the week isn't as insane as today was._ I thought as I laid down next to Kira. Call it intuition, but I knew hoping for that was in vain. Something told me that soon things were only going to get more insane.

Only question was, how much more insane?


	10. Kimonos

_**TheHeartsPath: Wow! I made it to the first of the double digit chapters! Hooray! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

NOTES:

Kimono – a long robe with wide sleeves traditionally worn with a broad sash as an outer garment by the Japanese

Obi – a broad sash worn especially with a Japanese kimono

Geta – a Japanese wooden clog for outdoor wear

Zori – a flat thonged sandal usually made of straw, cloth, leather, or rubber

Sakura – cherry blossoms

**Chapter 10: Kimonos**

Ayla's POV

The next day I had been told by some seniors that I had 'better stay away from Shuichi Minamino or else.' Which is how I found out exactly why all those girls had tried to beat me up during dodge ball in gym yesterday. They were all members of the 'Shuichi Minamino Fan-Club'. Oh joy. Turned out that a couple of them had seen me talking to him near the end of lunch.

So what do good, little, psychotic fan-girls do? Spread the word that a particular new girl is getting 'uppity' and talking _alone_ with the club's idol. I immediately notified Gwen about the risk of being a target of the rabid wolves through telepathy. My bad, I meant the rabid _fan-girls_. Not my fault that it's so hard to tell the difference between the two. She let me know that she'd be careful.

Both my senses of sight and smell have been acting up over the week. Meaning I've had headaches every damn day. My control over my spirit energy also seems to have gone haywire. On Wednesday, I had gotten annoyed after having fan-girls threaten me for the hundredth time that day and ended up sending a small wave of spirit energy out. Meaning I ended up shattering all the windows of the classroom I was in. This of course freaked out the students, but the teacher managed to get everyone to calm down.

Most of the glass had gone outside, but some had gone into the classroom. So a few of the students got hit with some pieces. I had tried to put a shield over myself, Kokoda, and the other students sitting by the windows, but for some reason I couldn't put one up.

Because I had been the source of the windows shattering Kokoda and I had the worst injuries. Kokoda would probably have a small scar that went through his left eyebrow. While I did have several cuts on my face none of them were deep enough to cause scars. All six of us that had cuts were told to go to the nurse's office. Thankfully none of us had gotten glass in our eyes.

I told Kokoda that I would take care of my own cuts with the first aid kit I had in my locker. He tried to convince me otherwise, but he'd stopped trying and gone to the nurse when I told him that I didn't really like other people whom I didn't know tending to my injuries.

It was only while I was tending my injuries that I realized why my control over my spirit energy wasn't at its best. I had _another_ power awakening. Yippee. Just what I needed. After that I made sure not to let my emotions get the better of my control. Sadly, that's not the easiest thing in the world for an empath to do.

So other than being threatened by crazy fan-girls, the rest of the week went by without too much insanity. Well, without too much insanity from 'normal' things that is. Or as normal as anything could be in my life.

Hiei was still following me everyday. I had the weirdest dream about him on Wednesday night. In the dream he gently touched my face near my injuries saying, "'You should be more careful and take better care of yourself Ayla.'" It had felt so real.

These last few days I've caught myself touching my face where Hiei's fingers had touched in my dream and blushing as I remembered said dream. I had to keep reminding myself that it was just a dream and nothing more. We haven't spoken to each other since Monday. Not that I even want to talk with him. At least that's what I kept telling myself.

The study group was working really well for everyone. Although Gwen and I were having a bit of trouble keeping Sinclair and Kokoda focused on the parts of their homework that didn't revolve around computers.

Surprisingly I was actually beginning to understand math with Shuichi's tutoring. He was _way_ better at explaining it in a way I could understand than any of my previous tutors. So much better that I was able to correctly solve a problem on the board that the teacher had asked me to solve on Thursday. Kokoda told Gwen and Sinclair about it much to my embarrassment. Both had congratulated me on it. They then proceeded to embarrass me further when we went home and then over to the Minamino's for studying. Thus, more congratulations occurred.

I wanted to do nothing more than find a hole and crawl in it. No one can ever brag and embarrass you more than your own family can. And over things that don't really need to be bragged about either.

It was Saturday, so Kira and I had left the house around nine o'clock this morning to head to Grandma Genkai's. As we had left the house I noticed that Hiei was M.I.A. For some reason he wasn't following me around today. It's now ten o'clock and we're on the bus heading out of the city to see Grandma Genkai for the first time in about a year. Grandma Genkai had been so busy with psychic matters the past couple of years that she hadn't been able to visit as often as she usually did.

I was sitting on the isle with Kira sitting on my left, by the window. Originally she had been watching the scenery go by, but about ten minutes ago she had fallen asleep. Kira always managed to fall asleep in an automobile if the ride was going to last more than thirty minutes. There was a bag in my right hand and my left arm was around her shoulders, making it so she was leaning against me. Didn't want her leaning against the window if the bus hit a pothole or something and end up hitting her head.

Sleeping peacefully she was looking absolutely cute in her new kimono. The outer robe was emerald green with sakura scattered on it while the inner robe was a dark purple with the obi being the same color.

On our way to the bus station, we had walked by a store that sold both dresses and kimonos. Shoes (or geta and zori for kimonos) were also sold so that you could actually leave the store with the complete outfit, while wearing it. The kimono had been in the store window and by the look on Kira's face I knew she had fallen in love with it. Because I knew she had grown out of her last one I decided to buy it for her.

I had enough money saved up from allowances, holidays, and all the odd jobs that I'd had over the years to buy something like that for my baby sister. Hell, I probably could have bought something like that for myself as well and _still_ have enough money leftover to buy more outfits like it. Since I'm not a big fan of spending money all the time, especially on clothes, I didn't have any intention of finding out if that was true or not.

Unfortunately, I ended up finding out anyways.

Kira had been standing beside me wearing her new kimono and zori, while I was getting ready to pay for them, when something caught her attention. She'd grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the register. I wasn't even going to ask her why she'd suddenly dragged me away before I had paid for her new kimono because it could only mean one thing.

She saw an outfit that _only_ she could talk me into getting for myself. For the life of me, I still haven't been able to figure out how she does it. It was for this reason that whenever Gwen dragged me along to go clothes shopping, she made certain that Kira came too. Just so she could make sure I had something that was 'in style'.

To me, clothes shopping is hell on earth. If someone wanted to torture me for information they didn't need anything that was _actually_ designed for torture. Nope. All they had to do was drag me through a clothing store full of the newest fashions and crazy women looking for a sale. I'd break in less than five minutes of entering the store.

So I learned to shall we say, 'disappear,' whenever Gwen got in the mood to go clothes shopping. I couldn't always manage the disappearing act, but I sure as hell tried.

The lady at the register followed after us, probably to make sure we didn't leave without paying first. I started reassuring her that I would in fact pay for the kimono when Kira suddenly stopped and I bumped into her. Still talking to the lady, I looked at Kira who was pointing at something in front of her. Looking up I found myself completely speechless.

It was another kimono, only this one was in my size and my favorite colors. The outer robe was the same shade of the outer part of my irises (without the contacts), medium sage green. The inner robe and obi were both in lilac. I noticed there was some kind of small design along the edges of the outer robe in black and walked closer to find out what it was. Dragons, not the western type that have wings, but the eastern type with the long bodies that always seem to look as if they might move if you looked away.

How the hell I hadn't seen it before was a mystery to me.

It was then I realized that Kira wasn't holding my arm and turned to look at her. She smiled at me and looked quite proud of herself for having spotted the kimono. I couldn't help but smile back.

The lady was thrilled when I said that I wanted to buy not just the kimono that Kira was wearing, but also the one on the mannequin along with a pair of zori. I could survive wearing zori but geta were a danger to both my ankles and neck. When she asked if I wanted to wear it out of the store I had declined, saying that I wanted both items placed in a bag.

Once we were out of the store and on our way to the bus station again, Kira asked why I hadn't wanted to wear the kimono on the way to Grandma Genkai's. Reminding her of the stairs that were at the base of her temple, I said that I would never try to go up them in a kimono. I didn't trust my klutzy self to not end up injuring myself in something fancy like a kimono. When dealing with Grandma's stairs I would always choose pants, they just had better movement.

Apparently she had forgotten about the stairs and looked worried now that I had mentioned them. I promised that I'd carry her up them so she could keep wearing her kimono. She stopped looking worried and then had this look that said she had an idea.

Looking at me she had a grin that I swear could have put the Cheshire Cat itself to shame. Whenever Kira got that look it meant she wanted me to promise her something that was reasonable, but probably not something that I'd be completely comfortable with. She wanted me to put the kimono on once we got to Grandma Genkai's. I really didn't want to wear the thing unless it was for a special occasion, like I usually do with fancy clothes, but she started giving me the puppy eyes.

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, those eyes that almost no one can resist. The puppy eyes were losing until she brought up the fact that we hadn't seen Grandma Genkai in about a year. Which basically made this a special occasion and that she would probably like to see me in my new kimono too.

Leave it to my baby sister to make not having seen our grandmother in nearly a year into the type of special occasion where really nice clothes was more appropriate. The way Kira can manipulate me and others sometimes makes me think she should go into politics when she's older. So like any big sister that can't refuse their baby sister anything, I agreed.

Here's to hoping that I didn't end up regretting my promise.

Our stop was coming up so I decided to wake Kira from her nap. "Kira, wake up." All she did was snuggle into my side more, like a kitten would do with its littermates. My mouth twitched in amusement and I shook her lightly. "Wake up Pixie. We'll be at our stop soon." Still she wouldn't wake up. _Well that didn't work. Hmm...Aha! That'll get her to wake up quickly._ "Gee, guess I won't be wearing my new kimono when we get to Grandma Genkai's then." I said watching Kira intently.

Not even a second later her eyes shot open. "You promised Ayla!" she said, sitting up. Seeing me smirking she gave me a disgruntled look. "You only said that so I'd wake up didn't you sissy?"

"Yep." I chuckled. _She has no idea how adorable she looks when disgruntled._

The bus stopped and we got off. After walking for a few minutes we came to the base of the stairs that lead to the temple. "Been a good while since either of us last went up these blasted things." I said looking up the stairs.

Kira nodded, "I can't wait to see Grandma Genkai!"

"Neither can I. Hold onto the bag for me while I carry you?"

"Sure sissy." I gave her the bag and picked her up bridal style. "Are you gonna do that fast running you do sometimes?" she asked me, a hopeful lilt to her voice. She loved it when I would run faster than normal while carrying her.

Shaking my head I answered, "Not this time Kira." When she looked disappointed I told her, "My control over my abilities hasn't been at its best lately Kira. Remember what I told Mom and Dad about the window incident? I don't want to take a chance of something going wrong with my control being like it is and getting you hurt."

"I understand sissy." she answered.

"Tell you what. Once my abilities are back under control I'll take for you good run. Okay?"

"Promise?"

"Promise." With that we started up the stairs.

Getting to the top took a while, but I didn't feel tired from climbing the stairs. If anything I felt energized. It happened every time I climbed those stairs. I placed Kira on the ground and stretched to work out any possible knots that may have started forming.

Mid-stretch I noticed that there were five other Heart's Songs coming from inside the temple besides Grandma's. _Grams didn't mention having other people over when I spoke to her on the phone Sunday night. Huh?_ My eyes widened in surprise when I realized that I knew four of the five Heart's Songs already. _What the hell are Hiei, Shuichi, Kazuma, and Yusuke doing here? Shuichi did say that the four of them knew Grams. Maybe they're visiting?_

The moment that thought popped in my head I tossed it out. Something told me that they weren't here for a mere visit. What that something was exactly I couldn't say, but it said they were here for another reason. _Guess I'll find out soon enough why they're here. Not to mention find out who that other person is. Now that I think about it, whoever they are, their energy is like Hiei's._

I lost my train of thought when the door opened and saw Grandma Genkai.

"Grandma Genkai!" Kira yelled and ran to our grandmother to give her a hug.

Smiling, I shook my head at Kira's exuberance. Again I wondered how the hell she managed to run in a kimono. I've worn my share of kimonos over the years and _still_ have yet to find a way to run in one without falling flat on my face. There seems to be an exact art to it that I haven't mastered.

The two of them hugged and Grams spoke to me, "Well are you going to come over here and greet me or just stand there smiling like a twit all day?"

My smile grew, I could tell she was only teasing me. "You know I was just waiting for Kira to hug you first. I know better than to get between her and whoever she wants to hug. Getting trampled isn't on my list of things-to-do-today." I responded as I walked over to her and hugged her.

"It's so good to see you again after so long Grams." I said in a quiet voice. It was only now, while I was hugging her, that my brain finally registered that I was with my grandmother for the first time in nearly a year. I was so happy that I was having trouble trying not to cry tears of joy.

"It's good to see you too Ayla." she replied in an equally quiet voice, just before we separated. In a normal tone of voice she said, "I see you have a new kimono Kira. You look lovely."

Giggling Kira answered, "Thank you Grandma Genkai! Ayla bought it for me when we were on our way to the bus station. But you should see the kimono that she got herself. It's really beautiful!"

Raising an eyebrow at me Grams just said one word, "Really?"

Blushing, I was about to respond when a male voice spoke, "You got yourself a kimono Natura?"

Being called by my last name threw me enough that I couldn't place the voice at first. Looking at the doorway I saw Shuichi, Kazuma, Yusuke, who were all wearing jeans with t-shirts, although Shuichi had a jacket on, Hiei in the same clothes I had seen him in last, and a girl I didn't recognize wearing a kimono.

All my focus was on the girl after I saw her. Her hair was an aqua-teal like color with part of it held back in a ponytail with some kind of red ribbon. And she had crimson eyes. Seeing another person with crimson eyes was a bit surprising. _Her eyes are just like Hiei's. Except hers have a gentleness to them that his don't._ The kimono she was wearing was made up of a light blue outer robe, red inner robe, and a dark blue obi. _She's beautiful, and her Heart's Song is one of the gentlest I've ever heard._

"Hey are you listening to me?"

I looked at Yusuke, having realized that it was him that had spoken and called me by my last name. "I'm sorry. Did you say something? I wasn't listening." I smirked as I spoke.

"Why you little..." He started towards me but stopped as Shuichi put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yusuke, calm down. Ayla, please try to not antagonize Yusuke." Shuichi said.

Sighing Grandma Genkai said, "Asking her not to antagonize people is pointless."

"How come?" Kazuma asked.

"Because there are things about a person you can only find out about them if you either annoy them or make them mad." I answered.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Yusuke yelled.

Raising an eyebrow I replied, "If you don't know what it means then you have to figure it out on your own."

"Sissy, I know Shuichi, but who are the others?" Kira asked.

"Well, the one with the slicked black hair is Yusuke Urameshi. The one with the carrot-top red hair is Kazuma Kuwabara. And the guy with the hair in the shape of a black flame with a white star burst is Hiei. As to who the girl is, I'm just as clueless as you are." I told her.

The girl came forward and bowed saying, "My name is Yukina. It's very nice to meet the both of you."

_So she's Yukina._ I smiled and bowed in return, "I'm Ayla, it's very nice to meet you too Yukina."

"I'm Kira! Can I hug you Yukina?" Kira said excitedly.

Yukina looked surprised at first then she smiled, "I'd like that."

"Kira loves giving hugs." I told Yukina as Kira hugged her.

"You need to change into your kimono Ayla." Kira said.

I blinked in response, "Huh?"

Her next words reminded me of what she meant. "You promised to change into your new kimono once we got to Grandma Genkai's remember?"

"But that was before I knew any of the male species would be here." I said glancing at the guys.

Grams chuckled, "You're still going to change into it anyways though aren't you?"

"Well of course. After all, I did promise Kira and I'll be damned if I ever break a promise." I responded intensely.

"Then let's all go inside. I need to talk to the two of you after you get changed Ayla." Grams led the way follwed by Yukina, Kira, and myself.

_I just hope I don't look too bad. Why the hell am I worried about how I'll look? I never worry about that, so why am I now?_ Glancing at the guys again as we headed inside I noticed Hiei was staring at me. _Maybe the reason you're worried is because Hiei will be seeing you in a kimono? Hush up self! I don't care what he thinks about how I look. Liar!_ I could feel myself blushing and looked at Yukina, "Um Yukina? Would you mind helping me with my kimono? I'm not very good when it comes to tying the obi."

"Of course Ayla." Yukina answered with a smile.

"Thanks." I couldn't help but return her smile. _She's such a sweet girl._ Once we were inside I took a moment to look around. _Nice to see the place hasn't changed much._

"After you've changed Ayla come to the living room. There is much we need to talk about." Grams said.

"The living room, got it. And I agree, there is much we need to talk about." I replied.

"Come on sissy! You need to change!" Kira said grabbing my hand and dragging me down the hall.

I chuckled, "Ok, ok, slow down Pixie. We don't need to run like a fox with a hound on its trail." Looking over my shoulder I asked, "You coming Yukina?"

She nodded and started following us asking, "Do you know where you're going exactly?"

Kira stopped and I nearly crashed into her. "Oops. I forgot where our old rooms were." Kira told her.

Smiling Yukina answered, "That's alright. Genkai showed me where they were so I could show you to them if you had forgotten. Please follow me." She lead us down one of the many hallways in the temple, stopping at one of the doors. "This is your room Ayla. Kira's is right across the hall from yours." Yukina told us.

"Thanks for showing us the way Yukina. Been so long since I was last here my memory was a bit foggy." I said.

"Shall we get you changed into your kimono?"

"Yes! We get her changed now!" Kira chirped. Before I could say anything she dragged me into my room. Yukina giggled as she followed us inside, closing the door.

Changing into the kimono didn't take long with both Yukina and Kira's help. "I probably look terrible." I mumbled.

Yukina's confusion was evident in her voice when she asked, "Why would you think such a thing Ayla? You're beautiful."

Shaking my head I answered, "You're beautiful Yukina. But me? The best I can do is be pretty when I dress nice."

"Do you not have confidence in how you look?" she asked obviously trying to understand me.

I shrugged, "It's not that I don't have confidence in how I look, it's just...How to put this? I don't exactly care about how I look. You saw what I was wearing when I got here. Guys' jeans that are loose and a t-shirt that's big enough to go past my rear. I dress in what I feel comfortable in. The clothes I wear aren't what society says is attractive, or in style. Fancy clothes like this kimono aren't my thing. Though I certainly prefer them over most fancy clothes. I'm just not meant to wear clothes that are for girls, so I don't bother most of the time." I sighed, "Besides I doubt anyone would think I was even pretty if they saw my real eye color." Right after I said that I stiffened. _Shit. I wasn't supposed to mention that._

"What do you mean Ayla?" Yukina asked.

"She's talking about the color her eyes are without the colored contacts that she is wearing."

Both Yukina and I looked at the door seeing Grandma Genkai standing there. It was then that I realized Kira was missing from the room. "How long have you been there Grams?" I asked.

"Long enough to hear you talk about what you think of your looks. Kira came and got me a while ago." she replied. The look she was giving me said she thought I was being a bit of an idiot. "Take your contacts out."

"What?" I asked, blinking at her.

"I want you to take your contacts out. I know why Aya and Natala have you wear them now, but I don't like it. When you are here I want you to remove them as soon as possible. Is that understood?" she said in that no-nonsense way of hers'.

For a few moments I just stared at her, then I nodded. "I understand Grandma Genkai."

"Good. Kira is in the living room with the boys, which is where I will be as well. Yukina would you please get some tea for everyone?"

"Of course Genkai." Yukina answered.

The two of them left and I stood there looking at the door. With a sigh I went into the bathroom that was connected to my room and stood at the sink, looking in the mirror. _So Grams doesn't like me wearing the contacts eh? Nice to know I'm not the only one. Good thing I brought the case and drops with me._

I removed my glasses, setting them to the side, and removed my contacts. "Man it feels good not having those damn things in." The contacts were placed in their case and I put some drops in my eyes to moisten them from the contacts being removed. Putting my glasses back on I looked in the mirror once more and blinked in surprise. _Wow this kimono brings out my eyes a lot. I look better than I thought I would._

"Well, time to leave the safety of my room and face everyone." I grumbled. I left my room and headed to the living room, part of me curious and part of me worried. _Just relax Ayla. Nothing to worry about._ I was lying to myself and I knew it. This would be the first time that anyone outside of my family had seen my real eye color since we had moved to Japan.

_This is crazy. I'm more worried about how they'll react to my true eye color than I am about what the hell has been happening to me lately._

The door to the living room was closed and I was standing just outside of it. _Here goes nothing I suppose._ Taking a deep breath and releasing it, I opened the door and braced myself for everyone's reactions.


	11. Acceptance at Last

_**TheHeartsPath: Here's another chapter for you loyal readers out there! I'll be trying to update at least every two weeks, but I can't promise anything for sure. My dad leaves in a week so things will be rather hectic for a while. Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 11: Acceptance at Last**

Hiei's POV

(Thoughts of the past week)

I had been listening to the conversation that Kurama, Ayla, and the fool Kuwabara were having as they worked on math. Her anger towards the fox when she found out that he had told me, Yusuke, and the oaf that her grandmother was Genkai was understandable. The way she spoke about trusting a telepath I knew that she had her own bad experiences with people trusting her and vis versa. I had been amazed that the fool had picked up on that so easily.

She seemed to withdraw into herself for a few minutes after that. I had tried to find out what was going through her mind, but she had withdrawn far enough that I couldn't reach even that strange shield of hers'. Once she came back from wherever her mind had gone those few moments she seemed...distant. Not physically distant but emotionally and mentally distant. Seeing her like that was strangely disturbing. After a few minutes she became less distant until she was back to the way she had been before withdrawing into herself.

I was very surprised when she said that she trusted me wholeheartedly. Hearing her say that pleased me greatly for some reason. When she smacked the fool upside the head I found it amusing. And the way she avoided giving Kurama an answer to his question was entertaining. Her exasperation at the fool's stupidity was quite evident in the way she kept hitting her head on the table.

Her surprised reaction to the fox's mother speaking was ridiculous. I had thought she had better awareness of her surroundings than that. After trying to stand up and falling back down I started to wonder just how hard she had hit her head. She didn't like the way the oaf had picked her up and held her in the air like she was an object instead of a person. I half expected her to hit him, but she didn't.

Kurama filled me in on our newest mission when he came outside his house after helping the onna and the oaf with their math. Finding out that we had to protect and train the onna annoyed me. It was interesting to find out that she did have other abilities besides telepathy and empathy. But what psychic abilities she had exactly wasn't specified.

When the fox mentioned that Koenma was having her bloodline checked for any demon ancestors I had tensed up. If she did have a demon ancestor the chances of that bastard King Yama ordering her death were very high.

It was no surprise that she had no clue at all about the Makai and Reikai. I had gathered as much just from the way she spoke about the difference in mine and Kurama's energies from others that she has known with abilities. That foolish, old woman, Genkai should have told her about them when she was younger. So as to prepare her for what she would have to face when she was older.

The fox was not pleased with me having upset Ayla and wanted to know what I had done. I'd told him that it was none of his business and left before he could say anything more.

I've been avoiding the onna this past week, but have still been keeping an eye on her. There was an increase in the number of demons that were running around lately. But so far only one demon has tried to go after her. It was the same day that her spirit energy got out of control and she shattered all those windows.

The demon was a weak D class that tried to get her when she was alone in the hall tending to her injuries. I cornered him before he could even enter the building and questioned him. He said that he'd sensed a human with spirit energy and wanted to eat her so that his power level would increase. Hearing him say that angered me and I killed him, burning his remains with the darkness flame to quickly get rid of them.

No one was going to harm the onna while I was around.

That night after I was certain that Ayla and her sister were asleep I entered her room to check her injuries myself. It had bothered me greatly seeing her hurt and bleeding. Gently I touched her face turning her head enough so that I could see the cuts clearly. There was no strange jolt going through my being when I touched her this time. Seeing her laying there without her glasses she seemed more...delicate. Without meaning to I spoke to her, "You should be more careful and take better care of yourself Ayla."

As if responding to what I had said, she nuzzled her face into my hand. I could feel myself blushing at her unconscious gesture. "Hiei..." she whispered my name. For a second I thought she had woken up, but she had merely talked in her sleep.

Standing there, with my hand still touching her face, I watched her sleep for a few minutes more. Almost reluctantly, I left the room to sit in the tree outside her window and keep watch. As I was watching for anymore demons that might try to come after her I thought about what had happened. For some reason as I had stood by her bed watching her sleep I felt something that I hadn't expected.

I'd felt at peace. It was then I realized that even though I always felt confused whenever I was near her, I felt at peace as well. Feeling at peace was not something I was used to. Why I felt like this was a mystery to me.

But I planned to find out.

(Present Day)

It was now the day that the onna would be coming to Genkai's temple. I had been at the temple for a couple of hours before Kurama arrived. The detective and the fool showed up an hour later. As usual the oaf started flirting with Yukina as soon as he saw her. Because I couldn't kill the idiot without going to Reikai prison I settled for glaring daggers at him instead.

"When will Ayla be arriving Genkai?" Kurama asked.

"She and Kira should be here soon." Genkai replied.

"Kira? I thought that only Ayla was supposed to be coming."

Genkai explained, "That was before it was discovered that Kira is an empath. Ayla is bringing her here so that I can find out the extent of her empathic powers and start training her."

"Hang on a second you old hag. One, who the hell is Kira? And two, is she just an empath or is she just like Ayla?" Yusuke asked.

"Kira is my youngest grandchild. She told her mother and Ayla that she is only an empath when they asked her." Genkai responded, glaring at the detective.

With a smirk on his face Yusuke asked, "So Hiei...Kurama says you and Ayla talked a lot when the two of you met. Why is that? You got the hots for her or something?"

Glaring at him I said, "It is none of your business detective. And I am not, nor will I ever, be attracted to a human female like the onna."

"Geez shrimp, she does have a name you know." Kuwabara said. I turned my glare to him.

"Kazuma, Hiei please don't fight." Yukina requested.

"As you wish my love!" the fool answered.

"Hn." After a moment I said, "Three days ago a demon tried to go after the onna."

"WHAT?" Yusuke and the oaf yelled.

Kurama looked thoughtful, "Three days ago was Wednesday. That's when all the windows of the classroom she and Kokoda were in shattered."

I nodded my head, "She lost control over her spirit energy and sent out a small wave of it. Which is what caused the windows to shatter. It also drew the attention of a nearby demon."

"What class was the demon?" Yusuke asked.

"A mere D class. I stopped him from trying to enter the school and questioned him. Apparently after sensing her the bastard got it into his head to eat her so that his power level would increase. I killed him and disposed of the remains." I answered. Just thinking about that D class scum wanting to eat the onna made me angry.

"I'll contact Koenma and let him know that there has already been one demon after Ayla." Kurama said, leaving the room.

Kuwabara spoke up, "Hey guys I sense Ayla's energy. I think she's at the bottom of the stairs."

Yusuke nodded, "I sense her energy too Kuwabara. But is it just me or does her energy seem even stranger than it did when I first met her?"

"Her energy has changed because she has a new power inside her that is truly awakening." Genkai answered. Both the fool and detective looked at each other confused.

"What do you mean 'truly awakening' Genkai?" Yukina asked.

"Like with her telepathic and empathic powers Ayla was born with them. Meaning those powers were already awake inside her. But it was only once she reached a certain age that either of them truly awakened. So whatever new ability is about to awake is one that she probably already has. It just isn't strong enough yet for her to really use." Genkai replied.

"I still don't get it." Yusuke said.

Kurama had come back into the room from speaking with Koenma while Genkai was talking. He began explaining what she meant. "What Genkai means is that Ayla's powers were only at a certain level of power to begin with, but once she turned a certain age the power level of her abilities raised to their truest level."

"So it's like she got an upgrade or something?" the fool asked.

Blinking, Kurama nodded, "That's one way of putting it I guess."

"Only an idiot like you would think of it that way." I sneered.

"That does it! I'm gonna pummel you shorty!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Hmph. I'd like to see you try."

"Both of you knock it off! They're here. Now, I suggest the two of you behave. You too dimwit." Genkai said, the last part directed at Yusuke.

"I didn't do anything." Yusuke replied.

"Yet."

"HEY!" he yelled after Genkai as she left the room.

"Well I think we should follow and greet Ayla and Kira ourselves." Kurama said and proceeded to follow Genkai. I followed Kurama, Yukina, Yusuke, and Kuwabara out of the room.

We were almost to the open door when we heard a young female's voice yell, "Grandma Genkai!" As we came outside we saw the onna's little sister running to Genkai and hugging her. The onna was standing near the stairs with a smile on her face watching her sister and grandmother embrace.

"Well are you going to come over here and greet me or just stand there smiling like a twit all day?" Genkai asked.

I was slightly surprised when Ayla's smile grew in response. "You know I was just waiting for Kira to hug you first. I know better than to get between her and whoever she wants to hug. Getting trampled on isn't on my list of things-to-do-today." she answered as she walked forward and embraced Genkai.

After they ended their embrace Genkai spoke, "I see you have a new kimono Kira. You look lovely."

Giggling Kira answered, "Thank you Grandma Genkai! Ayla bought it for me when we were on our way to the bus station. But you should see the kimono that she got herself. It's really beautiful!"

"Really?" Genkai asked looking at Ayla who was blushing.

_The onna got herself a kimono? Interesting. I wonder how she'll look in it._ I mentally slapped myself for wondering that.

"You got yourself a kimono Natura?" Yusuke asked, loud enough for Ayla to hear him.

Hearing him speak, Ayla looked past Genkai at us. She looked all of us over before her attention settled on Yukina. It was obvious that she was memorizing how Yukina looked. The look on her face as she studied Yukina was one of slight surprise. _What about Yukina surprises her?_

"Hey are you listening to me?" Yusuke asked with annoyance in his voice.

Ayla looked at him, then smirked saying, "I'm sorry. Did you say something? I wasn't listening." It was rather amusing that she was purposely trying to annoy the detective.

"Why you little..." he said starting towards her.

I was about to tell Yusuke to stay where he was if he wanted to stay in one piece, but he stopped when Kurama put a hand on his shoulder. "Yusuke, calm down." said the fox, "Ayla, please try to not antagonize Yusuke."

With a sigh Genkai said, "Asking her not to antagonize people is pointless."

"How come?" asked the fool.

Instead of Genkai answering it was Ayla. "Because there are things about a person you can only find out about them if you either annoy them or make them mad."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" yelled Yusuke.

Raising an eyebrow she answered, "If you don't know what it means then you have to figure it out on your own."

"Sissy, I know Shuichi, but who are the others?" the onna's sister asked.

The onna said, "Well, the one with the slicked black hair is Yusuke Urameshi. The one with the carrot-top red hair is Kazuma Kuwabara. And the guy with the hair in the shape of a black flame with a white star burst is Hiei. As to who the girl is, I'm just as clueless as you are."

_Black flame?_ I could tell I wasn't the only one of us that was surprised at Ayla using the words 'black flame' in correlation with me.

Yukina walked up to them and bowed. "My name is Yukina. It's very nice to meet the both of you."

Smiling the onna bowed in return, "I'm Ayla. It's very nice to meet you too Yukina."

"I'm Kira! Can I hug you Yukina?"

For a second Yukina didn't say anything. She was probably a bit surprised at Kira's question. She then said, "I'd like that."

"Kira loves giving hugs." Ayla told her.

"You need to change into your kimono Ayla." Kira said.

Blinking in confusion Ayla said, "Huh?"

"You promised to change into your new kimono once we got to Grandma Genkai's remember?" responded Kira.

"But that was before I knew any of the male species would be here." the onna replied with a glance at me and the others.

Chuckling Genkai asked her, "You're still going to change into it though aren't you?"

"Well of course. After all I did promise Kira and I'll be damned if I ever break a promise." was the onna's response. From her tone of voice it was obvious that she believed in keeping your word once it was given, no matter what.

"Then let's all go inside. I need to talk to the two of you after you get changed Ayla." With that Genkai turned around and headed towards us to head inside. Yukina, Ayla, and her sister followed.

As they were walking towards us Ayla glanced up and noticed that I was watching her. She blushed and turned to Yukina, "Um Yukina? Would you mind helping me with my kimono? I'm not very good when it comes to tying the obi."

"Of course Ayla." Yukina replied smiling.

"Thanks." Ayla smiled back.

When everyone was inside Ayla looked around, a thoughtful look on her face. "After you've changed Ayla come to the living room. There is much that we need to talk about." Genkai said.

"The living room, got it. And I agree, there is much we need to talk about." Ayla replied.

Kira grabbed her hand and started dragging her down the hall. "Come on sissy! You need to change!"

Ayla chuckled, "Ok, ok, slow down Pixie. We don't need to run like a fox with a hound on its trail." _Yet another interesting choice of words._ "You coming Yukina?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.

Yukina nodded and followed after them. "Do you know where you're going exactly?" she asked.

From the way the onna stopped I was guessing that she was trying to not crash into her sister. "Oops. I forgot where our old rooms were." Kira answered.

"That's alright. Genkai showed me where they were so I could show you to them if you had forgotten. Please follow me."

As the three of them disappeared around the corner Kurama spoke, "I get the feeling that wearing a kimono isn't one of Ayla's favorite things to do."

Genkai snorted, "That's because it's not. Ayla doesn't like to spend money on clothes for herself like most girls. She'd rather spend money on books, art supplies, or food. Basically on things that are more practical."

"Then why did she buy a kimono for herself?" Kuwabara asked.

"Kira."

Raising an eyebrow at that answer Yusuke asked, "What does Kira have to do with it?"

"The only one that can ever get Ayla to buy clothes, especially girls clothes, for herself is Kira. As to why that is I haven't a damn clue and neither does Ayla." Genkai answered with a shrug.

"I wonder how Ayla will look." said Kuwabara.

Yusuke smirked, "Same here. I'm wondering how hot she'll look."

"Kuwabara, Yusuke, I wouldn't go there if I were you." Kurama warned.

"What are you talking about fox boy?" asked Yusuke.

"He's talking about the fact that if either of you even think about doing anything perverted to the onna, I will kill you." I answered, glaring at them.

"You said you weren't attracted to her Hiei. So why should it bother you if we do anything?" Yusuke said with a smirk. His smirk disappeared a moment later when my sword was pointed at his throat.

"Whoa, easy there shrimp! You don't have to go crazy and pull your sword! It's not like we were actually going to do anything!" the fool yelped.

"Make sure that you don't. Or I _will_ kill you." I growled. Taking my sword away from the detective's throat I walked down the hall in the opposite direction that the girls had gone. I entered the living room, putting my sword away as I walked to the window where I normally sit. Once I sat down I stared out the window thinking. Genkai and the others came into the room a few moments later.

_Damn it. I knew that they were only being their usual idiotic selves but I ended up getting angry anyways. Why the hell did I get so angry? They better not talk about Ayla like that again. I won't stand for them or anyone else talking like that about my onna._

My reflection in the window showed my eyes widen in shock. Since when did I think of the onna as 'mine'? I should have felt disgusted for even thinking of her as mine. But I didn't. Instead I felt pleased by the thought. _What the hell is wrong with me?_

The onna's sister came into the room alone. "Grandma Genkai?" she asked.

"What is it Kira?"

"What's making you angry?"

Genkai smirked, "You can tell I'm angry by my Heart's Song just like Ayla can?"

Kira nodded, "But I can't tell what kind of angry like she does. So why are you angry Grandma Genkai?"

Sighing Genkai answered, "Her colored contacts. I understand why your parents want her wearing them. But I think that it's a bit late in the game."

"Wait, Ayla wears colored contacts?" Yusuke asked.

Genkai nodded, "To hide the real color of her eyes."

"Why?" asked Kurama.

"When you see her eyes real color you'll understand." Genkai cryptically responded.

"Sissy looks a lot prettier without them. But she won't take them off unless she's at home." Sadness was in Kira's voice as she spoke.

Genkai stood up, walked past her, and into the hall. "Then I'll have to tell her to do otherwise. Stay here with the boys Kira, while I go and talk to Ayla real quick."

"Okay." Kira chirped.

"How have you been Kira?" Kurama asked.

"Good I guess. How about you Shuichi?" she asked as she sat down beside him.

"I'm doing well."

Yusuke leaned on the table towards Kira. "So you're Ayla's baby sister. Just how many of you guys are there?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Kira asked tilting her head to the right.

"I mean how many Natura kids are there."

"Oh. There's Gwen, Sinclair, Ayla, Haku, and me." she answered with a smile.

"Five of you guys? Damn."

"Urameshi! Don't curse in front of the kid!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

Kira shrugged, "It's okay. Sin and Ayla curse so I'm used to it. Although Ayla doesn't curse as much as Sin does. Gwennie gets mad when Haku uses curse words. But I don't repeat any of it."

"With the way you are Kira, I doubt you'll ever really curse." Genkai said as she and Yukina came into the room.

The oaf asked, "Where's Ayla?"

"She'll be along in a minute."

"I'll be right back with the tea." Yukina said heading to the kitchen.

"Can I help Yukina?" asked Kira. Yukina nodded and Kira followed her into the kitchen.

"Cute squirt." chuckled Yusuke.

"Yeah. For some reason she makes me think of a kitten." Kuwabara said.

Yusuke rolled his eyes, "Why am I not surprised?"

"He's not the first one that Kira has made think of a kitten. And he probably won't be the last either." Genkai chuckled.

The detective looked at the fool and asked, "What about Ayla? She make you think of a kitten too?"

Shaking his head the fool answered, "Nope. She makes me think more of a big cat."

"What do you mean a big cat? You mean like a tiger or something?"

Kuwabara nodded, "Yeah, a big cat like that. Though for some reason she makes me think of a panther more than a tiger. Maybe a jaguar."

"Oh I get it. You're afraid of her Kuwabara." Yusuke joked.

"No! But if she's anything like Shizuru then I wouldn't want to get on her bad side."

"Who's Shizuru?" Kira asked as she and Yukina came back with the tea.

"She's Kazuma's older sister." Yukina told her.

Yukina was passing the tea out when the door to the hallway opened. Ayla was standing there in her kimono with her head bowed enough that I couldn't see the upper part of her face. But what I could see was slightly red. She was blushing with embarrassment about being seen dressed as she was. _Those colors suit her. Why isn't she looking at us?_ Stepping into the room she closed the door. She clasped her hands in front of her, but I still saw the slight tremble that she was trying to hide.

"Damn Natura. You don't look too bad in a kimono." Yusuke admitted.

"Urameshi's right, you look nice." agreed Kuwabara.

"I agree. You look lovely Ayla." said Kurama.

Ayla shook her head, "Don't say that."

"Why not?" asked the fox.

"Because..." she trailed off.

"Ayla," Genkai said, "it's alright. Let them see your real eye color."

She lifted her head slightly before she lowered it again.

"They're not like all those mean people back in America sissy. They're nicer." Kira told her.

The way she wouldn't look at anyone was starting to bother me. I stood up and walked over to her, stopping in front of her. She was so tense with the readiness to run if she needed to that her entire body was shaking. _She's afraid of what our reactions will be. That's the only reason I can think of for the way she's acting._ "Look at me onna." I told her.

"Leave her alone Hiei." Kuwabara said.

I ignored him and gently grabbed her chin. Lightly, I lifted her chin up so that her face was no longer looking at the floor. She had her eyes shut. "Onna, look at me." I told her again, "Open your eyes." I don't know why my voice was gentler this time when I spoke, but it was. And I knew that she noticed it too.

At first I didn't think she would do as I said, but then her eyelids fluttered. Slowly the tension in her eased away and she opened her eyes. For a moment I forgot how to breathe. _Her eyes are beautiful!_ Never had I seen eyes like hers before in my life.

A medium sage green on the outer part of the iris and a bright amber brown on the inner part. Her eyes made me think of a forest. Now I knew why she was so hesitant about any of us seeing her true eye color. The color of her eyes wasn't what any human and few demons would consider to be natural. She had most likely been shunned for the color of her eyes growing up.

From behind me Yusuke spoke, "Hey Hiei, we can't see what her eyes look like with you standing in front of her."

"Yeah shrimp. Move so we can see her eyes too." said Kuwabara.

They were walking across the room and were now only a few feet away. Ayla's eyes widened and all the tension that had left her a few moments ago returned. I stepped to the side so that I was to Ayla's right. But still looking at her, allowing the others to see the true color of her eyes. And allowing myself to see their reactions from the corner of my eye.

"Holy shit!" the detective yelped.

The fool gasped, "What the?"

The fox came to see why they had reacted to the onna's eye color as they did. When he saw her eyes his own widened and he blinked several times. As if to make sure he wasn't imagining what he was seeing. "Well, this is unexpected." was all he said.

Yukina could see her eyes from where she was, but didn't say anything. She stayed seated at the table along with Genkai and Kira.

The onna decided to try and leave the room then. She only got to turn around and place her hand on the door when I grabbed her left arm. "Let go of me Hiei." she said.

"You're staying here onna." I told her.

"No I'm not! Now let go of me dammit!" she yelled turning to me. There were tears in her eyes threatening to run down her face. I yanked her away from the door, making her lose her balance, and pulled her into my arms. "What are you doing?" Ayla asked startled.

"Making sure you don't leave." I knew that everyone was watching, seeing me act differently than normal. But I simply ignored them. Right now all I wanted to do was get rid of the tears and sadness in Ayla's eyes. "You are not leaving. If anyone has to leave they do, but not you." I told her.

Kuwabara spoke up, "We aren't leaving Hiei."

Turning to him, Yusuke, and Kurama I glared at them. "Then I suggest you all stop gaping at her, starting now."

They looked like they were each about to say something when Ayla spoke. It was only one word but it held so much within it.

"Why?"

She made to pull away and I let her put about six inches between us before I stopped her from going any farther. It was enough space so that she was still in my arms, but could look me in the face. Her confusion at my reaction to her eyes was clear in her voice and face. But it was most obvious in her eyes. "Why aren't you gaping at me? Why aren't you looking at me like I'm a freak? A monster? An..." she stopped.

"A what?" I asked gently. Shaking her head she looked away.

Ayla's POV

Why was Hiei acting like this? First he was his usual self, then he was gentle. Now he seems to be trying to protect me from the others.

"Why?"

I tried to pull away from him and surprisingly he let me. Although he only allowed me to put about half a foot between us. Making it so that I was still in his arms, but could look at his face. He saw my confusion with ease, I wasn't even trying to hide it. "Why aren't you gaping at me? Why aren't you looking at me like I'm a freak? A monster? An..."

_An abomination?_ I silently finished.

Even after having been called that for years I couldn't repeat it out loud. There was a part of me that was afraid that if I said it out loud it would be like admitting that what they said was true. I could easily say that I was considered a freak or a monster. Because children say that type of stuff all the time to anyone who is different in any way. So I didn't think of either one as being true.

But being called an abomination was different. That word is so much stronger, so much more cruel, so much more painful.

"A what?" he asked me gently. Shaking my head I looked away from him, away from everyone. I couldn't say it. I just couldn't. "Onna."

_ ~Onna tell me.~_ Surprised I looked back at Hiei. _~A what?~_ He cupped my face with both his hands, keeping me from turning my head when I tried to look away again. _~Look at me. Tell me.~_

I looked him in the eyes and let down the part of my mental shield that protected my memories. Every single memory I had of people shunning me, beating me, calling me different things, rose to the surface of my mind and crashed into Hiei's. I could see every single one of those memories clearly. Yet at the same time I never lost sight of Hiei's eyes staring into mine. As he saw my memories I heard his Heart's Song react to what he was seeing. When he saw the memories of me being called an abomination the intensity of his anger scared me.

The memories stopped after what seemed like forever but I knew it hadn't even been a minute. I just stood there, looking at him, afraid to move. I hadn't known that I was crying until he brushed his thumbs across my cheeks, wiping away my tears.

"What those people said isn't true onna. You have never been _that._ You never will." He didn't say abomination, he said 'that'. He was comforting me without telling the other what he was comforting me about.

My tears were in earnest now. Moving his hands from my face, he laid them lightly on my shoulders. Making no move to try and keep me from leaving the room like earlier. He was giving me the choice to move away from him if I still wanted to.

_But I don't want to leave now. I want to stay here, near him. Where I feel safe._

Safe. That was something I hadn't felt in a long time. Being near Hiei I felt safer than I ever had before.

Without another thought I went into Hiei's arms and held onto him. He wrapped his arms around me, telling me without words that he accepted me, all of me. And that with him I was safe, truly safe. I tucked my face into the area between his neck and shoulder, and let myself truly cry for the first time in years.

Tears of relief from no longer hiding the pain of being called an abomination. Tears of joy from finally finding someone who not only completely accepted me, but also made me feel safe in the truest sense of the word.

_~Thank you Hiei. Thank you.~_

_~Hn. You're welcome.~_

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me at hearing him say that strange sounding word of his.


	12. Explanations Begin

_**TheHeartsPath: TA-DA! Chapter 12! Now there's a nice even dozen chapters. Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 12: Explanations Begin**

Yusuke's POV

Ayla's a frigging mystery and a half.

She obviously likes to annoy people, but she also seems to like being friendly to people. Her saying Hiei's hair was shaped like a black flame shocked the hell out of me. So did the comment about a fox.

Made me wonder if she actually knows more than everyone thinks she does.

As she, Genkai, Yukina, and her sister were coming into the temple I saw her blush after glancing at Hiei. He'd said earlier that he wasn't attracted to her, but for her to blush after just glancing at him told me she found him attractive.

After the girls had gone off to get Ayla changed, me and Kuwabara did our usual joking around. Wondering about how she'd look in her kimono and Kurama warning us about what we were saying. When I was yanking Hiei's chain about what he said earlier I hadn't expected him to _actually_ pull his sword on me. He really was serious about killing us if we tried anything perverted with Ayla.

No way in hell was I going to piss Hiei off that much. I've already died twice and I don't want to die again until I'm really old thanks.

On the bright side, it confirmed my suspicion about him being attracted to Ayla. He's got it bad. I seriously doubt that anyone that's out to get Ayla will live long enough to get anywhere near her.

When Ayla finally came into the room after changing into her kimono I was a bit surprised. I figured she'd look alright in it. But damn she was skinnier than I thought. The clothes she'd been wearing when she first arrived had fooled me good. Probably fooled everyone good except for Genkai, Yukina, and the squirt.

It was kinda weird how she wasn't looking at any of us though. She just kept staring at the floor. I thought it was even weirder that she didn't want us to say she looked good until Genkai told her to let us see her real eye color. The squirt saying that we weren't like the people back in America had me guess that her eye color had caused her a lot of grief while growing up.

Ayla still wouldn't look at us when Hiei stood up and walked over to her. He stopped right in front of her. From where I was sitting I had sort of a side view of her face. "Look at me onna." he said in a commanding way. _Oh yeah, like that's gonna make her look at you Hiei._

"Leave her alone Hiei." Kuwabara said. I agreed with him, thinking that Hiei should leave her alone. Of course like usual, Hiei completely ignored Kuwabara all together.

When he grabbed her chin I was afraid he might yank her face upwards so she'd be looking at him. Instead he was gentle, slowly bringing her face up.

Hiei being gentle...hell must have frozen over.

Her face could be seen now and I noticed her eyes were closed. _Well she's stubborn._ "Onna, look at me. Open your eyes." I looked at Hiei, shocked at the way he was talking to Ayla. _Did I just hear Hiei, a guy who would threaten you just for getting close to him, speak with an obviously gentle voice?_

Oh yeah. Hell had _definitely_ frozen over.

Glancing at Kuwabara and Kurama we all shared a look that said not one of us had been expecting that. Looking back, I saw that Ayla's eyes were open. I couldn't tell the color of her eyes from where I was sitting, but Hiei sure could. They were staring at each other, neither one moving a muscle. Hell it didn't even look like either of them was breathing.

Hiei wasn't sharing any info on what her eyes looked like so I decided to see for myself. "Hey Hiei, we can't see what her eyes look like with you standing in front of her." I said as I got up and started over to them.

Kuwabara got up and followed saying, "Yeah shrimp. Move so we can see her eyes too."

Hiei stepped to the left so that he was out of the way, but still looking at Ayla. The moment I saw her eyes I said the first thing that came to mind. "Holy shit!"

I heard Kuwabara gasp and say, "What the?"

Both her eyes were two colors at once. Some kind of green on the outside of the iris while at the same time some kind of bright brown color on the inside. _How the hell is that even possible? I've seen demons with some strange looking eyes, but never with eyes like hers._

Kurama came over to see her eyes and looked surprised as well. Course all he said was, "Well, this is unexpected." That's fox boy for you.

A moment later Ayla turned around, my guess was to leave the room. But all she got to do was put her hand on the door before Hiei grabbed her left arm. "Let go of me Hiei." she said without looking at him.

"You're staying here onna." he told her, his voice back to its normal, harsh tone.

"No I'm not! Now let go of me dammit!" Ayla yelled turning to Hiei. I was close enough that I saw the tears in her eyes that she was trying to fight. Suddenly Hiei yanked her away from the door and pulled her into his arms while her balance was shot. Startled Ayla asked, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't leave." was Hiei's reply. "You are not leaving. If anyone has to leave they do, but not you."

"We aren't leaving Hiei." Kuwabara said.

Hiei turned to the three of us and glared. "Then I suggest you all stop gaping at her, starting now." _Hiei's right. We shouldn't be gaping at her._ I was about to apologize when Ayla spoke.

"Why?" she asked. It was strange hearing her confusion in that one word. She pulled away from Hiei, still in his arms, but there was about a half foot between them as she looked him in the eye. "Why aren't you gaping at me? Why aren't you looking at me like I'm a freak? A monster? An..." she suddenly stopped talking. It looked like she wasn't going to finish what she was saying.

Freak? Monster? Her asking those questions clearly said she'd had it even rougher growing up than I first thought.

"A what?" Hiei gently asked her. Ayla just shook her head and looked away from him. Her face was turned so that none of us could see her face. "Onna." A couple moments of silence later, she turned back to Hiei with surprise written on her face. _What surprised her?_ She started to turn her head away again but Hiei cupped her face between his hands. When Ayla looked him in the eyes I felt her energy merge slightly with Hiei's.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"I don't know. But I can sense that Ayla and Hiei are connected somehow." Kuwabara said.

Kurama nodded, "I sense it too. The question is, how are they connected?"

"It's alright. I have a feeling that Ayla is telling Hiei what she couldn't say in words." Genkai told us.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking at her.

Genkai just looked at me like I was stupid. "You heard what she was asking Hiei didn't you? Why don't you try using that brain in that thick skull of yours to figure it out?"

Kuwabara spoke again, but softer than usual. "She's been hiding something from everyone. Something painful." I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. If he said Ayla was hiding something like that then he was probably right.

I looked back at Hiei and Ayla to see that Ayla was crying. She wasn't sobbing, she was just standing there with tears slowly rolling down her face. Hiei wiped them away with his thumbs saying to her, "What those people said isn't true onna. You have never been _that._ You never will." Her tears seemed to come faster after he said that.

He moved his hands from her face to her shoulders. It was like he was letting her know that she could leave if she wanted to now and he wouldn't try to stop her. A second later she went into Hiei's arms on her own and hugged him. Though it looked more like she was hanging onto him like he was a lifeline or something. He wrapped his arms around her like he'd never let her go.

_Hiei really cares about her._ I still couldn't believe that this was the same Hiei I've known for years now. The same Hiei that didn't like anyone getting close to him in any way whatsoever.

Ayla tucked her face into that area between Hiei's neck and shoulder, with her face towards us. Not that anyone could actually _see_ her face right now. Her shoulders were shaking with how much she was crying now. No more than a few seconds later a small chuckle came from Ayla. And a small smile, not Hiei's usual smirk, appeared on his face. _What the hell?_

That's all I could think as I continued to watch the way that Hiei was acting. From the moment that Ayla and the squirt Kira arrived he has done nothing but act weird. Scratch that, he's been acting weirder than usual. Usually he'll find a window, sit at it, stare out it, and ignore everything else. But every time Ayla is in sight all he does is stare at her. At first it was kinda creepy, but now...ah hell I don't know.

All I know right now is that Hiei isn't being his usual self. He's been gentle with Ayla and now what looks like comforting her too. Somehow Hiei and Ayla have connected with each other. If that's a good or bad thing I'm not sure. But so far it looks like it's a good one.

Fox boy says that Ayla confuses the hell out of Hiei. If you ask me, she seems to confuse the hell out of everybody.

Genkai's POV

Sitting there watching Ayla finally let out the pain that she has been bottling up inside for so long I was relieved. I had been hoping that one of the boys would be able to do the one thing no one else had been able to do. Get her to open up and let at least some of the pain go.

The fact that it was Hiei that she connected with surprised me. Add in the fact that Ayla had obviously shared some of her memories with him, judging from the way her energy merged with his, and I was even more surprised. Ayla doesn't even like to share her memories with the members of our family. Because she doesn't want us to know everything she's had to deal with.

Because of Kuwabara's high spirit awareness and gentle heart, I thought he would make a connection with her. Similar to what he'd done during the Dark Tournament when we were fighting those controlled humans from the Dr. Ichigaki team.

_Well it doesn't really matter who she connected with anymore. All that matters is that she's finally found acceptance._

A few minutes passed before Ayla stopped crying and stepped away from Hiei. She wiped away the rest of her tears saying, "Sorry about that everyone."

"You don't have to apologize for anything Ayla. It is us that need to apologize. I'm sorry for my reaction." Kurama stated.

"Yeah. I'm sorry too Ayla." said Kuwabara.

"Same here Natura. Sorry." Yusuke rubbed the back of his head as he spoke.

Ayla nodded. "Apologies accepted." Looking at Hiei she said, "Sorry I got your shirt wet Hiei."

"Hn. Don't worry about it onna." Hiei replied as he turned around, going back to the window and sitting down.

Ayla chuckled, a small smile on her face. "Well, guess we should get comfortable. You did want to talk after all Grandma Genkai." she said.

I nodded and everyone but Hiei came to the table and sat down.

Yukina asked, "Would you like some tea Ayla?"

"Yeah, thanks Yukina." After taking the tea that Yukina offered, Ayla looked at me. "Dad told me that you wanted to talk to me about my abilities and some other stuff."

Nodding again I said, "We will talk about your abilities in a bit. Originally I was only going to tell you about this Ayla. But now that you need training with your own ability Kira, you need to know as well. First I need to tell you both about the other worlds."

"Other worlds?" Kira asked.

"You see besides the world we live in, the Ningenkai or Human world, there are two other worlds. The Reikai or Spirit world, and the Makai or Demon world. The Reikai is where people, humans and demons, go to after they die. The Makai is where demons live or at least the majority of them anyways." I explained.

"The majority of demons. Meaning that there are demons that live here in Ningenkai?" asked Ayla.

"Yes."

"Learn something new everyday." she mumbled.

"You don't seem surprised about this Ayla." Kurama observed.

Ayla raised an eyebrow at Kurama. "Consider certain factors of my life. One, I have both telepathic and empathic powers. Two, I've been trained to use my spirit energy to an extent. And three, I have known other people with abilities. So why the hell should I be surprised about there being two other worlds and demons existing?"

Kurama chuckled, "Touché."

"Would you be surprised to find out that you already know some demons?" Yusuke asked.

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe a little?" she answered with a shrug.

"Well you do know some. In fact, you know two that are full-blooded, one that is half-demon through a merger with a human body, and one that is half-demon through a demon ancestor." I told her.

"Let me guess. All four just happen to be in this room right now." It wasn't a question but a statement.

"How the heck did you know?" Kuwabara asked.

Ayla took a drink of her tea before answering Kuwabara's question. "Energy. When I met you guys I noticed the differences in your energies from normal people. Kazuma yours is like Grams' and others I've met with abilities, meaning you're a psychic. But the rest of you have energy that is different from what I've sensed before. Yusuke's energy is a mix of two energies. Shuichi's is sorta like Yusuke's but it's not. Can't really figure out how to explain that. And both Hiei and Yukina's energies are the same, totally different from a psychic's spirit energy." she finished explaining.

Kira giggled, "You sounded like Daddy giving a speech again sissy."

"I didn't mean to." grumbled Ayla.

_So she can easily tell the difference between spirit energy and demon energy. That will make some of her training simpler._ "Ayla, I want you to tell me which of them is the different demons I mentioned earlier." I said.

"I take it that I'm back in training again?" she asked as she set her cup of tea on the table.

Yusuke snorted, "Have fun in hell."

Both Ayla and I looked at him, then each other and smirked. "Finally something interesting to do." Ayla chuckled.

"Interesting?! You find training with the old hag interesting?! You've got to be crazy!" Yusuke yelled.

Ayla's energy spiked, which grabbed everyone's attention. Hiei was no longer sitting at the window, but standing near it. Yukina pulled Kira towards her and moved both of them slowly away from Ayla. Just as I had asked her to do if Ayla's energy level spiked.

Aya had called and told me what Ayla had done at her school with the windows. I was merely taking precautions so that Ayla didn't accidently hurt Kira while her control was messed up from her newest ability awakening. Ayla would never forgive herself if she hurt Kira, even if it was accidental.

Kira was looking back and forth between Ayla, Yukina, and myself. She looked a little scared, probably because she was picking up on the fear that I was feeling, Yukina's worry, and the boys' caution. I wasn't afraid of Ayla herself, it was what she might do without meaning to that I was worried about. Yusuke and Kuwabara both looked startled from Ayla's energy spiking. Kurama appeared calm until you saw the look of caution in his eyes.

Slowly Ayla turned so that she was looking at Yusuke. The look on her face plainly said that she was pissed. Her anger had gotten the better of her control which was why her energy had spiked like it did. "Don't. You. Ever. Call. My. Grandmother. That. Again." she said in a clipped voice.

"What are you talking about?" Yusuke asked.

"Urameshi, I think she means when you called Genkai an old hag." Kuwabara said as he slowly backed away from the table.

"I call her that all the time, so what's the big deal?"

Ayla's energy spiked higher.

"Detective you are an idiot." Hiei deadpanned.

"Agreed." I said.

Kurama nodded, "I'm afraid I have to agree as well."

"You call Grandma Genkai an old hag all the time?!" Ayla shouted.

"I just said so or are you deaf Natura?" Yusuke replied. Ayla glared and started growling. "Is that supposed to scare me?" he scoffed.

I was about to tell Yusuke to shut the hell up when the growl that Ayla was making changed. The sound that was coming out of her wasn't the type of sound that is supposed to come from the throat of a human or most demons. It was the type of sound that came from an animal that was getting ready to rip your throat out.

Hearing that sound come from my granddaughter's throat made me afraid not just of what she might do, but afraid of her, or at least her body. Because if that sound was any indication, Ayla wasn't exactly home in her mind at the moment.

_This is not good..._


	13. I'm A What? !

_**TheHeartsPath: Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. Things have been just plain crazy around here. Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~ __Intinctual/Unconscious Thoughts_

**Chapter 13: I'm A What?!**

Ayla's POV

_Yusuke just called Grams an hold hag?! That jerk!_ I felt my own energy level spike because of how angry I was. All I wanted to do right now was give Yusuke hell. _Try to keep a hold of yourself Ayla. Don't let your anger ruin what control you have._

Slowly I turned to Yusuke, my anger obvious on my face. "Don't. You. Ever. Call. My. Grandmother. That. Again." I told him in a clipped voice.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

Kuwabara was slowly backing away from the table saying, "Urameshi, I think she means when you called Genkai an old hag."

"I call her that all the time, so what's the big deal?" Yusuke asked.

_He calls her that all the time?!_ My energy spiked again in response to my growing anger.

"Detective you are an idiot." Hiei deadpanned. _Why is he calling Yusuke detective?_

"Agreed." I heard Grams say.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shuichi nod, "I'm afraid I have to agree as well."

"You call Grandma Genkai an old hag all the time?!" I shouted at Yusuke.

"I just said so or are you deaf Natura?" he replied. I glared at him like I could burn a hole through him and growled. "Is that supposed to scare me?" Yusuke said in a condescending tone.

_First he calls my grandmother an old hag and now he's just being a jerk! HE IS PISSING ME OFF!_ That was the last truly, conscious thought I had before I suddenly felt something inside of me come to the surface.

_Threat to self! Threat to kin! No let threat kill self! No let threat kill kin!_

Every sight, sound, and smell suddenly became even stronger. Yusuke was sitting about five feet from me, yet the things I could see, hear, and smell from him was amazing.

I could see the sweat on Yusuke's face, the individual hairs on his head, of his eyebrows and eyelashes.

I could hear him breathing, his heart beating in his chest, the blood pounding in his veins.

I could smell his sweat, his breath, his blood beneath his skin...and something else. Something that was weaker and yet so much stronger than everything else I was smelling.

Whatever that scent was it excited me.

_Fear. Smells of fear. Is afraid. Afraid of self. Afraid of death._

Yusuke wasn't Yusuke to me anymore as I looked at him. All I could think of him as now...was food.

_Tear flesh with claws. Sink fangs in flesh. Rip flesh from bone. Feed on flesh. Feed on blood. Kill prey. Kill threat. Kill. Kill. KILL!_

I was aware that I was moving, but that's all I was consciously aware of. As I moved toward the threat, my prey, I growled and it made some noises that I couldn't understand. There were more noises coming from the area around me but I ignored them. The closer I came to my prey, the stronger the scent of fear became.

I continued to move forward slowly, slowly, wanting to get as close as possible before I struck. Before I went for the kill.

My prey started to move backwards, away from me. I growled again, louder this time. It stopped for a second before it moved again and made to stand, to run. My prey was going to try and run. I didn't want that. I launched myself, going for the throat, but would take another body part as long as it meant slowing my prey so I could kill it and then feed.

Something slammed into me, pinning me to wood. I screamed, enraged at whatever would dare to stop me from making my kill. Whatever had stopped me loosened its grip for a moment, and that moment was enough. I wrestled my body from my enemy's grip and rammed my body into theirs, sending them flying away.

Something else grabbed me, flinging me to the ground and trying to pin me there. We rolled around for a few moments, each trying to pin the other. My enemy succeeded, but not before I had injured them with my claws. I growled in frustration this time and looked at my captor. My eyes met crimson and I froze.

I heard strange noises, but not with my ears, coming from somewhere. At first the noises didn't make sense but then slowly they started to. _~...onna! Onna can you hear me?! Answer me! Onna!~_ I could only mewl in confusion as I tried to respond. What did those noises mean? I didn't understand.

_~Onna, it's me Hiei! You have to control yourself! Do you understand me onna?! Onna!~_ It was that last strange sound that finally got through to me, to my mind, allowing me to gain a small amount of control.

_~H-Hiei?~_

_~Yes onna, it's me.~_

_~What's going on? What's happening to me?~_

_~We're not sure. Your anger got the better of your control and you started acting like a wild animal.~_

_~A wild animal?~_

_~That's what I just said isn't it?~_ There was annoyance in his voice about having to repeat himself.

_~Hiei I...~_ My slim grip of control started to slip away again. _~HIEI! HELP ME! I...~_ As I felt myself slip away into some unknown corner of my mind, I screamed. And I knew it wasn't a human one.

_~ONNA!~_/"ONNA!"

Kurama's POV

I was already on guard. Ready to either move away or intervene, depending on what happened if Ayla lost control. The moment that Ayla's growl changed to one that sounded more animal than human I knew something was wrong, very wrong.

I was sitting on the other side of the table, but was where I would in a way, be between Ayla and Yusuke. As I watched Ayla I saw her mind, who she was, slip away from her eyes. The part of me that is Yoko demanded that I kill her before she harmed anyone. I shoved that part of me away. I would not kill Ayla, subdue her yes, but not kill.

Suddenly she started to move towards Yusuke, somehow managing to crawl in her kimono. The crawl wasn't like how a person crawls. It was more animal-like, more feral. She growled as she made her way towards Yusuke.

"What the hell?! Her eyes changed!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"How exactly?" Genkai asked.

"Her eyes look like a cat's now! The pupil is a slit instead of a circle!"

"Calm down Yusuke." I said.

"Calm down?! She looks like she's gonna eat me and you want me to calm down?!" he yelled as he started to move back. Ayla growled again, but louder. Yusuke stopped moving for a second and then started to stand.

"Yusuke don't...!" I started to warn him, but it was too late. Ayla launched herself at Yusuke, intending to kill him.

I jumped over the table and slammed into Ayla, pinning her to the wall. The scream of rage that came out of her throat wasn't that of a human, but that of a feline. _She sounds like one of the big predatory cats._

My grip loosened for a moment at my shocked reaction not just to her scream, but also from seeing her canines looking more cat-like too. She wrested out of my grip and rammed her entire body into mine, sending me flying backwards into the table. _Damn._ I sat up in time to see Hiei grab Ayla and fling her to the floor. He was trying to pin her so she wouldn't be able to attack anyone else.

The two of them rolled around on the floor in a blur of black and sage green for several moments before Hiei managed to pin Ayla to the ground. He had his body on top of hers and had her arms above her head by holding her wrists. I noticed then that her nails were longer than they had been just moments before. Hiei was sporting some scratches on his face. The left sleeve of his cloak was ripped as well. There were more scratches on his arm from his shoulder to halfway down his forearm.

Ayla growled once more and looked at Hiei. Their eyes met and Ayla froze. "Hiei try talking to her telepathically." Genkai said. Hiei didn't make any outward show of hearing what Genkai said, but we all knew he had.

For a moment there was no sound from either of them, but then we heard a sound that resembled a smaller cat coming from Ayla. She was mewling and from the tone I knew that she was confused. I could tell the moment she managed to come back to her senses and speak to Hiei through telepathy.

When a few moments later Ayla once more let out a feline scream and I saw the look on Hiei's face, I knew she had lost what little control she'd had again. I heard Hiei yell both physically and telepathically, and knew that everyone else had as well. "ONNA!"/_~ONNA!~_ The anguish in Hiei's voice was clear to all of us in the room.

Hiei's POV

When Ayla's energy spiked I stood up, giving myself both a better view of the room and allowing myself to be able to move towards her quicker if things got out of hand. The detective was being an idiot baiting Ayla like he was. Hearing the growl that came out of Ayla wasn't something I had ever expected to hear from her.

The window that I was standing at placed me basically behind Yusuke. I could see Ayla's face clearly and as I looked at her I saw her slip away into her mind. Until the only thing left was something that wasn't Ayla at all, but something feral. When she started moving towards Yusuke I saw the shape of her pupils change to slits, like those of a cat's.

"What the hell?! Her eyes changed!" exclaimed Yusuke.

"How exactly?" Genkai asked him.

"Her eyes look like a cat's now! The pupil is a slit instead of a circle!"

"Calm down Yusuke." Kurama said.

"Calm down?! She looks like she's gonna eat me and you want me to calm down?!" he yelled as he started to move in my direction. Ayla growled at his movement in a louder tone. The detective stopped moving for a moment before he started to stand up.

The fox tried to warn him, "Yusuke don't...!"

It was too late, Ayla had already launched herself at Yusuke, quite obviously with the intent to kill him. I tried to move but it was as if that part of my brain couldn't take in that I needed to move to keep Ayla from killing Yusuke.

It was a good thing that the fox was close enough to stop her by jumping over the table and pinning her to the wall. When she screamed all of us froze, that sound coming from her was in its own way, worse than hearing that feral growl. The fox had loosened his grip on her for only a moment and she used it to her advantage. She pulled out of his grip and rammed into him, sending the fox flying backwards and into the table.

I finally snapped out of whatever it was that had kept me from moving before and grabbed Ayla, flinging her towards the floor so that I could pin her there. Unfortunately I wasn't expecting her strength and speed to have increased so much. We ended up rolling around, each trying to pin the other. I caught a glimpse of her teeth looking more like the fangs of a cat and _painfully_ found out that her nails were more like a cat's claws. She managed to scratch my face a couple of times before she started scratching the hell out of my left arm.

After I managed to pin Ayla, she growled and looked at me. The moment our eyes met she froze. "Hiei try talking to her telepathically." Genkai told me. _Like I wasn't already going to do that._

_~Onna you need to listen to me! You need to calm down! You need to do as I say onna! Onna can you hear me?! Answer me! Onna!~_ She didn't seem to hear me but then I heard her making a small noise. It took me a moment to realize that she was mewling in a confused manner. _She hears me but she doesn't understand?_

_~Onna, it's me Hiei! You have to control yourself! Do you understand me onna?! Onna!~_ If I hadn't been looking Ayla right in the eyes I wouldn't have seen her regain at least a portion of her control.

_~H-Hiei?~_ Hearing her say my name after trying to get through to her relieved me a little.

_~Yes onna, it's me.~_

_~What's going on? What's happening to me?~_

_~We're not sure. Your anger got the better of your control and you started to act like a wild animal.~_

_~A wild animal?~_

I couldn't help but be slightly annoyed with repeating myself. _~That's what I just said isn't it?~_

_~Hiei I...~_ I felt her start to slip away again and heard the fear in her mind's voice. _~HIEI! HELP ME! I...~_ As she slipped away completely she screamed and again it was that of a feline.

_~ONNA!~/_"ONNA!" I yelled at her, trying to reach her both telepathically and physically. The feeling of despair I felt as Ayla slipped away shocked me. _I have to get her back!_

Ayla stopped screaming and fell unconscious. I moved so that I was kneeling beside her and cradled her in my arms. Looking at Genkai I said, "She's slipped away into some part of her mind that I don't think she knew existed. I'm going to use the Jagan and bring her back."

"Hiei, be careful that you don't get lost in her mind as well." Kurama said.

"Hn, I won't get lost."

Kuwabara asked, "Are you even sure that you can bring her back Hiei?"

I froze. What if I _couldn't_ bring her back? I looked down at this strange, human girl that I have felt drawn to from the moment I saw her. The one who made me feel a sense of peace when I am near her. Taking my bandanna off I spoke, "I _will_ bring her back." _I have to, I need to._

"Hiei?" I turned to look at Kira who had spoken my name. "You'll bring her back. I know you will."

Puzzled by her words I asked, "How can you have such confidence in me?"

Smiling she answered, "Because you and Ayla are connected. The connection you have with her will help you to bring her back." She moved away from Yukina towards me, stopping when she was beside me.

Quietly, so that only I would hear her she said, "I worry about sissy because she worries about everyone else and forgets to take care of herself. But you watch over her and protect her. I know that you'll take care of her Hiei and she'll take care of you."

I was shocked. In the same quiet tone I said, "You heard me that night."

She nodded, "Bring Ayla back Hiei. She needs you. And you need her. Even if you both don't know it yet."

Something about the way Kira spoke made me wonder if she was more like Kurama than a normal eleven year old human girl.

"Kira come back over here. Just in case Ayla unconsciously lashes out with her spirit energy while Hiei brings her back." Genkai said.

"Okay." Kira went back over to Yukina.

Genkai nodded, letting me know that I could begin when I was ready. I looked again at Ayla's face before closing my eyes and focusing on entering her mind with the Jagan. _Ayla, I'll bring you back._

Ayla's POV (Ayla's Mind)

"Where am I?" I asked myself.

I was in the middle of a forest, filled with trees and plants from different parts of the world, and some that I doubted were from the Ningenkai at all. A lake with a river connected to it was nearby. Walking to the lakeshore I noticed that there were also animals, from present day and the past Ningenkai. Some of the animals were unusual looking. _Are those animals from the Makai or Reikai?_

"It's different from the forest I picture as a mental shield. I've never even seen most of the flora and fauna that are here, whether from pictures or in person. But this place seems so familiar. As though I've been here before..."

I heard leaves rustling behind me and whirled around to see what had caused the sound. Out of the bushes came a panther, its fur a dark, shiny black. There were a couple of differences with this panther in front of me and the ones I've seen in zoos. The first difference was that this one was quite a bit bigger and the second difference was the color of its eyes. Instead of the typical greenish-yellow that panthers are known to have, this particular panther's eyes were an exact replica of my own.

As I looked at the panther, I somehow knew it meant me no harm. It slowly walked towards me, watching me as if waiting to see what I would do. Once there was only a few feet separating the two of us it stopped and continued to watch me as I watched it in return.

_~At last, you begin to awaken.~_

My jaw dropped in shock. "This is probably a stupid question. But I'm gonna ask it anyways just to make myself feel better...Did you just talk?"

A rumbling sound, like a feline's version of a laugh, came from the panther. Apparently it found my question amusing. _~You already know the answer to that kitling.~_

I chuckled, "True, still I had to ask. Um, by the way, where are we?"

_~What is the last thing you remember?~_

Frowning I said, "I take it that means you aren't going to just be a nice panther and tell me." The only reply I got was the panther flicking its tail.

"Okay, fine, be that way then. Last thing I remember was getting mad at Yusuke...No that's not right." I said, narrowing my eyes as I tried to remember. "Crimson eyes. Hiei. I remember Hiei. He was trying to help me. Trying to help me regain control. But I couldn't and I slipped into my mind."

My eyes widened as I realized what I'd said. "Wait a minute! I'm in my mind? But I've withdrawn into my mind before and never been in this particular place. Hell, I didn't even know this part existed. What part of my mind is this? And don't go all mysterious or whatever and say I already know, cause I don't have a frigging clue."

Again I heard that strange feline chuckle. _~This is the part of your mind with our bloodline's knowledge and memories.~_

"Our bloodline? What are you? A representation of an ancestor of mine or something?" I asked completely confused.

_~This form that I have is one that those of our bloodline are able to take, as are the forms of all the animals you see here. And yes, I am a representation of your ancestors.~_

"My ancestors could take on animal forms?"

_~As can you, once you have fully awakened.~_

"Right...So what are you saying? That I'm a druid or some..."

It felt like something inside me snapped open the moment the words 'I'm a druid' left my mouth. As if part of me had been waiting to be acknowledged.

"Holy shit! I'm a druid?!"


	14. Ancestry Discovered

_**TheHeartsPath: I know that in both the series and manga that Yoko and Kurama/Shuichi are not completely different and separate personalities. But I've read enough fan-fics written by others where they have them like that and I think it's cool. So here goes nothing with trying to write the first of the split personality conversations. I have a feeling I'm going to be rather dizzy by the time it's done. LOL Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**P.S. : Thanks for the reviews to Time on my hands, Azura Soul Reaver, and j.d.y. An especially big thanks to Time on my hands. It was your stories of Roses and Regrets and The Search For A Mate that made me want to give writing a fan-fic of my own a try.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_ **"Yoko speaking to Kurama"**_**"Kurama speaking to Yoko"**_

**Chapter 14: Ancestry Discovered**

Hiei's POV (Ayla's Mind)

Opening my eyes, I found myself in the forest that worked as Ayla's mental shield. "Now to find the onna." I had only taken a few steps in the direction I had chosen to go when something came out of one of the trees to attack me. I leapt out of the way, drawing my sword before I had even landed.

Standing several yards away from me was one of the big cats. Its fur was mostly a golden hue while the underside area was a soft tan. There were black rosettes covering its body. _There weren't any animals the last time I tried to enter the onna's mind. Especially not any jaguars. So why is there now?_

"Who are you and what are you doing in the onna's mind?" I demanded.

_~I am the one that should be asking that of you intruder.~_

Raising an eyebrow I said, "Hiei, I've entered the onna's mind to bring her back. Now answer my question."

_~Your name is known to this one who is a part of Ayla.~_

"A part of her?" The jaguar nodded its head in reply. It was then I realized the color of its eyes were exactly like Ayla's.

_~Follow and I will lead you to her.~_ The jaguar turned around and started to walk away into the trees. In the same direction that I had started going in before it attacked me.

"And why should I trust you?"

It stopped and looked back at me. _~You want to find Ayla and bring her back from her mind do you not?~_

"That is what I told you."

_~Then you must follow me to find her. Otherwise you will end up lost.~_ With that it turned back around and walked farther into the trees.

Putting my sword away I said, "This had better not be a trick."

_~Are you going to just stand there or are you going to actually move those feet of yours and follow?~_

"Damn cat." I grumbled as I started to follow.

_~I heard that.~_

"Hn."

_~Try and keep up biped. That is of course, if you can.~_ The jaguar took off, up into the branches.

I followed, jumping from one branch to the next, making sure to keep the jaguar in my sight at all times. We alternated jumping from branch to branch, to running on the ground. As we made our way to wherever Ayla was I noticed the trees and plants changing. Before there seemed to be only a few types of trees and a few plants, now there were many different varieties of trees and plants. Animals were also appearing as well. _Besides the plants and animals from the Ningenkai, there are also ones from both the Makai and Reikai here too._

"You're a jaguar, an animal, how the hell can you be a part of the onna?" I asked as we continued on our way through this strange forest.

_~I am a part of her that has only begun to awaken. At the moment Ayla is speaking with the part that is a representation of her ancestors.~_

"And what do you represent?"

_~That is for Ayla to find out first, not you.~_

Narrowing my eyes at the jaguar I said, "I'm beginning to think you just like to play games with the way you keep answering me."

There was a strange sound, almost a laugh, coming from the jaguar. _~I am a feline after all. What feline doesn't like to play games in some fashion?~_

I felt a smirk appear on my face at the cat's retort. _That sounds like something the onna would say._

_~We are close now.~_

The sound of moving water was coming from the direction that we were headed in. I thought I heard Ayla's voice as well. We came out of the trees beside a lake with a river connected to it. _There she is._

Ayla was standing on the lakeshore and it looked as though she was talking to a panther. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying as I made my way over to her. But what she yelled made me stop dead in my tracks. "Holy shit! I'm a druid?!"

_It can't be...She can't be one of them, it's not possible._ That's what went through my mind after hearing the onna's words.

The onna quickly turned around and looked at me. "Hiei? Is that really you?" she asked with a look of caution on her face.

"Who else would it be onna?" I replied with a scowl.

Her cautious look changed to one that was a strange mix of relief and amusement. "Oh yeah, definitely the real Hiei." She saw the jaguar and raised an eyebrow, "Um, hello and what do you represent in my mind?"

_~The protector, the guardian, and the warrior.~_

Ayla blinked, "Right..."

_That explains why it was so quick to attack me._

Looking back at me Ayla asked, "So who is it that you meant when you said I can't be one of them. And how is it not possible?"

My eyes widened in surprise at her questions. I must have spoken out loud what I had thought after hearing her say she was a druid. "I was speaking of the druids." I answered.

"Why do I get the feeling you don't mean the druids of the ancient Celtics?" she said with a frown.

"Because I'm not."

_~He speaks of the first druids. The ones who taught humans what they could of their ways.~_ The voice was different from the jaguar's so it was probably the panther speaking.

"She is one of them?" I asked the panther.

_~She is a descendant, whose blood and powers have begun to awaken.~_

"Would someone _please_ tell me what or who the hell you guys are talking about?!" the onna shouted, looking back and forth between me and the cats.

"The fox and I will explain later once we're out of your mind onna. Right now we need to know why you're druidic blood and powers are awakening." I told her.

She nodded, "Alright fine. You better explain later about the druids...Not to mention whoever the hell this fox is you mentioned."

It took me a moment to realize that Ayla didn't know that I was referring to Kurama. _She still hasn't been told everything about all of us and our mission._

_~Ayla, you are awakening for a reason. However, we can not tell you what that reason is.~_

"Why the hell not?!" both the onna and I yelled. Both the panther and jaguar just looked at us.

"Neither of you are going to tell me why all this is happening to me." Ayla stated in disbelief.

"Let's go onna."

Ayla looked at me, at the cats, then back at me. "Okay Hiei. Weird as this may sound I really want to get out of my mind and back to the world, uh worlds...whatever." I understood why she wanted to leave her mind. She was trying to deal with too many different things in too short a timespan.

She had walked over to me when the cats spoke in unison. _~Discover who you are Ayla. Discover your heart. And you shall find the answers.~_

Ayla took a step back towards them, but the cats ran into the trees, out of sight. When she made to go after them I grabbed her hand to stop her. "They won't tell us anything more onna."

Nodding her head and sighing, "Yeah I know. Now I have to figure out what they meant by that oh-so-lovely cryptic message." There was a hint of aggravation in her voice as she spoke.

"Close your eyes and focus on leaving here." I told her, still keeping her hand in mine.

"You lead the way out Hiei. I'd be lucky if I managed to get myself to another part of my mind that I'm actually familiar with considering what's been happening with me lately." she replied as she closed her eyes.

With a smirk I said, "Hn, as if I'd let you lead me anywhere onna."

Opening her eyes, she turned to me and frowned. "You know, if I wasn't so happy to see you, I'd be rather tempted to give into the urge I have to kick you."

"I'd like to see you try."

She rolled her eyes before closing them, mumbling, "You are the strangest, damn male I've ever met."

I chuckled, closing my own eyes and focused on getting us out of her mind and back to everyone else.

Koenma's POV

I was busy stamping papers and worrying if Ayla did or did not have a demon ancestor. Having a demon ancestor meant that at some point her demon blood would fully awaken. Changing her into either a half-demon like Yusuke or into a full-blooded demon. Though the latter was a great rarity to have happen. _Worrying about this isn't going to help matters any. It'll only give me a bigger headache than I already have._

"Koenma, are you alright?" asked Botan worriedly.

With a sigh I answered, "As alright as I can be. George and the other ogres should be just about done checking Ayla's blood line."

Almost as if on cue the door to my office opened and in came George looking worried, closing the door behind him. "It's just as you thought Lord Koenma. Ayla does have a demon ancestor." George said.

I nodded, "Good job George. Now Botan I need you to go and..."

"There's something else you need to know Koenma sir!" George interrupted.

"What is it?" I snapped, annoyed that he had interrupted me.

"It's about the type of demon Ayla's ancestor was sir. Her ancestor was one of the druids." George quickly said.

I could feel my eyes widen, my jaw fall open in shock, and my pacifier fall out of my mouth and into my lap.

Botan gasped, "One of the druids? Are you sure?"

George nodded his head rapidly. "I double checked the findings when we found out she had a demon ancestor just like Lord Koenma ordered."

"This means that Ayla will be the first true druid to have appeared in five thousand years." I heard myself say.

"Koenma we need to tell Genkai and the boys." Botan reminded me.

Nodding my head in agreement I open a portal near Genkai's temple. "Leave immediately Botan. I have to do what I can to try and make sure my father doesn't find out about Ayla having a demon ancestor." _Especially the fact that her ancestor was one of the druids._

Botan conjured her oar, hopped on it and flew through the portal to notify Genkai and the guys. Once she was through the portal it closed.

"George come with me. We have work to do."

"Yes sir." he replied.

We both left my office and went to do what we could to try and keep my father from finding out about Ayla and her ancestor.

Kurama's POV

Only five minutes have passed since Hiei entered Ayla's mind to find her. Yukina had taken Kira to the kitchen to make something to eat for everyone, while the rest of us were staying in the living room waiting for Hiei to bring Ayla back. Hopefully it wouldn't take much longer.

"How much longer is it going to take for Hiei to bring Ayla back from her mind?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't know Kuwabara. But you have to remember what Hiei said. Ayla slipped away into a part of her mind that she may not have known to exist." I told him.

"Meaning what exactly Kurama?" asked Yusuke.

"Meaning that it may take time for Hiei to locate Ayla and bring her back." I answered.

"Great." Yusuke said sarcastically.

I glanced over at Yusuke and felt my mouth twitch in amusement. After Hiei had entered Ayla's mind, Yusuke had moved to the other side of the table. Placing it between himself and Ayla. For once in his life Yusuke was actually being cautious. It took Ayla going feral and trying to rip his throat out for Yusuke to realize that pushing her buttons while her control is so bad, was most certainly not a good idea. Particularly if he wanted to stay alive and in one piece.

Hearing the sound of someone running, I looked towards the door just as it slammed open. It was none other than Botan standing there.

"Hey Botan, what's up?" greeted Kuwabara.

"We just found out that..." Botan trailed off, her eyes widening as she caught sight of Hiei cradling Ayla in his arms.

"Ayla lost control and ended up slipping into a part of her mind. Hiei is trying to find her and bring her back." I told her, answering the question that she couldn't seem to voice.

"Oh..." she replied, still standing there looking at Hiei and Ayla. A surprised look still on her face.

"You came here for a reason Botan, what is it?" Genkai asked.

Shaking her head quickly, Botan looked at her saying, "Er...right! Anyways, what I was trying to say is that we've found out that Ayla does in fact have a demon ancestor."

"Shit! Tell me that asshole father of Koenma's doesn't know." Yusuke demanded.

"I don't know. Before I left Koenma said that he was going to try and make sure that King Yama doesn't find out about it." she replied.

"Did you happen to find out what type of demon her ancestor was?" I asked.

Nodding her head, Botan answered, "Yes we did. It turns out that her ancestor was one of the druids."

"One of the what?" Yusuke asked, his confusion evident in his voice.

"The druids, they were one of the most powerful type of demons to have ever existed." I replied.

Kuwabara scratched his head, "I thought that druids were like some kind of priests from ancient Europe."

I was a bit surprised that Kuwabara knew something about druids. Even if what he knew was only about the human ones. "The human ones were yes. But they were originally taught by the demon druids.

"What kind of things were these guys able to do?" Yusuke asked.

"They were both empathic and telepathic, had the ability to change their shape into that of any animal to have existed in any of the three worlds, manipulate plants, rapidly heal themselves and others, and several other things that I would think to be more myth than truth." I answered.

Yusuke raised and eyebrow and whistled. "And Ayla's the descendant of one of these druid guys? Guess that means she's gonna be pretty powerful huh?"

I nodded, "If she trains properly then most likely she will become quite powerful." _As long as no one kills her before she's had the chance to train._

"How come you keep talking about them in the past tense Kurama?" Kuwabara asked.

"Because they were wiped out five thousand years ago."

"What the hell do you mean wiped out?" Yusuke asked frowning.

I was about to explain what I meant when I saw Hiei open his eyes and heard Ayla groan. "It would appear that the two of you have returned." I said smiling.

"Took you long enough to bring her back shrimp." Kuwabara said.

Glaring at Kuwabara, Hiei was about to say something when Ayla spoke in an annoyed manner. "As soon as I get my bearings I am going to hurt you Kazuma."

Hiei stopped his glaring and looked down at Ayla with a smirk on his face.

"What? Why?" Kuwabara yelped.

"I've told you before that I dislike the way you refer to Hiei as a crustacean. So once I stop feeling fuzzy-headed I'm going to smack you upside the head." she replied, running a hand through her hair. She didn't look like she was doing as well as she had before losing control and slipping into her mind.

Yusuke laughed at what she had said before asking her in a teasing manner, "So Ayla...How long you gonna stay laying in Hiei's arms?"

Ayla looked confused for a second before she blushed and sat up quickly. "Sorry 'bout that Hiei." She pulled out of Hiei's arms and started to move so as to sit at the table.

To say the least it was quite surprising when Hiei grabbed her and made her sit with her back against his chest, his arms wrapped around her waist. Ayla's blush grew as she asked in a shaky voice, "H-Hiei? W-What are you d-doing?"

"As much as I would like to see you hit the oaf in the head, I don't think you should move a lot just yet. You haven't had a chance to recover from what just happened with your loss of control." Hiei answered her calmly.

"Oh...okay." she replied quietly, a light blush still on her face.

_~That's not the only reason you have her staying where she is, now is it Hiei?~_ Hiei didn't reply but I know that he heard me.

I glanced at the others and smiled in amusement. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan were all looking at Hiei like he had suddenly sprouted a second head. Genkai was looking thoughtful as she continued to drink her tea. Yukina and Kira had only been looking in long enough to check if Ayla was back before returning to the kitchen. Yukina had looked slightly surprised but was smiling. Surprisingly, Kira didn't seem surprised in the slightest about how Hiei was acting with Ayla.

_In fact, she seemed to be rather pleased about Hiei's actions towards her sister. Strange, it's almost as if Kira expected Hiei to act this way. It could be that she has sensed Hiei's attraction to Ayla through his Heart's Song._ Whatever her reason was for being pleased with Hiei's actions, I had to admit that I was pleased as well.

_It would appear that Ayla is good for Hiei and him for her. They are attracted to each other, but I doubt they realize that the attraction is mutual. If any of the girls figure out that Ayla and Hiei are attracted to each other they'll probably try to get them together by playing matchmaker._

**"Now there's an interesting idea."**

_**"What are you talking about Yoko?"**_

**"Why playing matchmaker of course."**

_**"Is it me or did it just sound like you were interested in playing matchmaker with Hiei and Ayla?"**_

**"Guilty as charged."**

_**"You suprise me Yoko."**_

**"How is that Shuichi?"**

_**"I'd have thought that you would try to take Ayla as yours considering your history with women."**_

**"You wound me. Why in the three worlds would I want the druid descendant when I find her lovely sister Gwen to be a much better mate for us?"**

Caught off guard by Yoko's admission of his thoughts regarding Gwen, I was momentarily rendered speechless. I was about to question him when Ayla's sudden question stopped me.

"Did I imagine it or did I really see an eye on your forehead Hiei?"

Ayla's POV

Becoming aware that I was in my body instead of in my mind, I opened my eyes and groaned. My head felt fuzzy and ached something fierce, particularly my mouth. The tips of my fingers were also hurting. Not to mention I felt like I had been drained of almost all of my energy.

I noticed that I was laying on the floor, cradled in Hiei's arms. _Hiei's holding me...again. I like when he holds me in his arms, I feel safe._ For some reason as I looked at Hiei's face I thought something was different. But my head was messed up enough that I couldn't put my finger on what that difference was at the moment.

"It would appear that the two of you have returned." I heard Shuichi say from somewhere to my right. Glancing at him, I saw he was sitting at the table, a small smile on his face.

"Took you long enough to bring her back shrimp." Kazuma said from next to Shuichi.

Seeing Hiei glare at him and getting ready to say something, I spoke up, annoyance clear in my voice. "As soon as I get my bearings I am going to hurt you Kazuma." Hiei stopped his glaring and looked down at me, an amused smirk on his handsome face.

Kazuma yelped, "What? Why?"

Running a hand through my hair I answered, "I've told you before that I dislike the way you refer to Hiei as a crustacean. So once I stop feeling fuzzy-headed I'm going to smack you upside the head." _Ugh...I feel like shit._

Yusuke found my words amusing, if his laughter was any indication. Once he stopped laughing he teasingly asked, "So Ayla...How long you gonna stay laying in Hiei's arms?"

_What is he talking...Oh._ Blushing, I quickly sat up and apologized, "Sorry 'bout that Hiei." Pulling out of his arms, I started to make my way to the table so that I could sit at it.

Suddenly I felt hands grab my shoulders and pull me backwards. Hiei had grabbed me, making me sit so that my back was against his chest and wrapping his arms around my waist. _What the hell is Hiei doing?!_ Feeling my blush grow I asked, "H-Hiei? W-What are you d-doing?"

He answered me calmly, "As much as I would like to see you hit the oaf in the head, I don't think you should move a lot just yet. You haven't had a chance to recover from what just happened with your loss of control."

"Oh...okay." I quietly replied. My face still felt a bit warm, meaning I was still blushing from Hiei pulling me against him.

_Why in the world, or would that be worlds, did Hiei just do what he did? I mean I can understand the not wanting me to move around part because of what happened. But the whole pulling me up against him and wrapping his arms around me? That I don't get at all. And what was it about Hiei that seemed different when I looked at him a minute ago? His hair and eyes weren't any different. His bandanna! That's what was different, he wasn't wearing it. Hang on a second...Was that another eye on his forehead?_

Since I wasn't sure if that was what I really saw or not, I decided to ask. "Did I imagine it or did I really see an eye on your forehead Hiei?"

I felt Hiei stiffen slightly behind me. "You didn't imagine it onna." he said.

I pulled myself away from him enough to turn around and look at his face. Right in the middle of his forehead, underneath some of his bangs, was another eye. It was different from his beautiful crimson eyes, but still beautiful in its own way. The eye was smaller and the iris was a light shade of purple.

_Sort of a lilac or lavender. This is crazy, even Hiei's third eye is beautiful._ "How come it's not the same color as your other eyes?" I asked looking Hiei in his crimson eyes.

"Because the Jagan was implanted." he replied.

"So it's not a natural eye. I get it." I said.

Yusuke said, "Man, I thought for sure that you'd freak out or something when you saw Hiei's third eye." It sort of sounded like he was disappointed that I didn't 'freak out' as he put it.

I turned to him and frowned, "You've obviously forgotten what I said earlier about why I'm not really being surprised by anything I've been told and now seen, dimwit."

"HEY!" Yusuke shouted.

Kazuma started rolling on the floor, laughing his head off. Shuichi appeared to be biting the tip of his thumb to keep from laughing. Grams chuckled before taking a sip of her tea. While Hiei didn't laugh, I did hear amusement in his Heart's Song. Since we were in physical contact I didn't have to focus that much to hear it.

_On second thought, I don't think I focused even a little to hear it. I just wondered if Hiei was amused like the others and I suddenly heard his Heart's Song loud and clear. Which is rather strange._

I then noticed a girl with sky blue hair in a pink kimono was holding her sides while laughing. My eye twitched when I realized the color of her kimono. _Doesn't this girl know that pink is only good in small quantities? That much pink is just a bit too much._

"You really...are...Genkai's...granddaughter." gasped the new girl as she continued to laugh.

I raised an eyebrow asking everyone in general, "Mind telling me what it was I said just now that was so amusing?"

"The fact that you called Yusuke a dimwit is what was found amusing onna." Hiei answered.

Looking at Grams I said, "Just a wild guess, but I'm gonna say that's what you call him." She was smirking as she nodded and continued to drink her tea.

Since I still felt fuzzy-headed and drained I leaned back against Hiei and looked at Yusuke again. His irritation at me calling him a dimwit was written all over his face. I grinned and decided to annoy him more. "You know, since both Grams and I call you a dimwit, it must be true."

Saying that made Shuichi lose the battle he was having with his laughter. It also made Kazuma and the blue haired girl laugh harder. My grin widened when I heard and felt Hiei chuckle behind me. Yusuke looked like he was glaring at me with everything he had.

The realization that both Kira and Yukina were no longer in the room finally registered in my brain. _Oh no..._ I felt my grin quickly disappear and my eyes widen in fear, as I remembered that Kira had been in the room just before I lost control. _No. No, no, no. I didn't hurt her. Please let me not have hurt Kira._

I tried to pull out of Hiei's arms and stand up, but he tightened his arms around me slightly. Saying without words that I wasn't going anywhere. "What do you think you are doing onna?" he asked.

"Kira. I have to find Kira. She was here when I lost control. I have to find her. I have to make sure I didn't hurt her. If I hurt her I..." I said very quickly, still struggling as best I could with my energy drained to get out of Hiei's arms. I couldn't keep my panic out of my voice as I spoke.

"You didn't hurt her." Hiei firmly said.

Immediately I stopped trying to get away from him upon hearing his words. "I didn't hurt Kira?"

"What Hiei said is true. You didn't hurt Kira at all." said Shuichi.

I leaned back against Hiei again, this time in relief. "Thank goodness I didn't hurt her." I said quietly. Feeling the burn of tears, I blinked quickly to keep them from falling.

"Now that Ayla and Hiei are back it's time to get back to what we were talking about. Also Ayla, I still want you to tell me which of the others are the different demons." Grams said.

_Well that's Grams for you after all. Relentless to a fault._


	15. Demons, Detectives, & Druids, Oh My

_**TheHeartsPath: Merry Christmas everyone! Here's the next chapter for your reading pleasure! I apologize for taking so long with updating. Before writing this story, I never knew writer's block could be so bad. Hope everyone's holidays are happy and safe ones! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 15: Demons, Detectives, & Druids, Oh My**

Ayla's POV

"Now that Ayla and Hiei are back it's time to get back to what we were talking about. Also Ayla, I still want you to tell me which of the others are the different demons." Grams said.

_Well that's Grams for you after all. Relentless to a fault._

"Whoa there old lady! She just got back out of her mind with her energy drained. How 'bout cutting her some slack?" Yusuke blurted out.

"Alright Grams." I replied. Yusuke looked at me like I was crazy or something. Ignoring him, I closed my eyes and focused on the energies of Hiei, Shuichi, Yusuke, and Yukina. Without opening my eyes I spoke, "The two that are full-blooded are Hiei and Yukina. I'm not sure which ones Shuichi and Yusuke are."

"Hmph. I know you can do better than that Ayla. Now do so." Grams rebuked me.

With a sigh I started to focus harder on Shuichi and Yusuke's energies. As I focused more I realized that even though Shuichi had both demon and spirit energy it seemed as though he could only access his demon energy and not his spirit energy. Like they weren't connected that much. While it seemed that Yusuke could use both of his energies and they seemed to flow in and out of each other.

_What was it that Grams said? One is a half-demon through a merger with a human body, while the other is a half-demon through a demon ancestor? So which one is which?_

Sighing again, I opened my eyes and looked at my grandmother. "I can't figure out which one is which Grams, sorry. But I did notice the difference in the way that their energies felt. Yusuke's felt, I don't know...more natural, than Shuichi's do. Shuichi's don't seem to connect much. Yusuke's on the other hand, seem to flow in and out of one another."

Frowning she said, "You may not have been able to figure it out, but at least you were able to notice that difference in their energies. Yusuke is the one who has a demon ancestor. While Shuichi, also known as Kurama, is the one that merged with a human body."

I looked at Shuichi for confirmation, "So you were a full-demon before?"

Shuichi, I mean Kurama nodded. _Now I don't know what to call him. Wonderful..._ "Yes, I was a fox demon by the name of Yoko Kurama. I lived as a thief, stealing what I wanted, when I wanted. Twenty years ago I was seriously injured by a strong pursuer after making a careless mistake during one of my burglaries. Escaping to the Ningenkai with a spirit body, I entered the unborn child of a human woman and have been living as a human here in the Ningenkai."

_~So when you were talking about the fox, Shuichi...uh Kurama...is the one you were referring to Hiei?~_

_~Hn.~_

_~I take it that is a yes?~_

_~Onna...~_

_~I'm not trying to annoy you. I'm just trying to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you.~_

_~...~_

_~Alright, I'll leave you alone telepathically.~_

"So you aren't really a half-demon?" I asked out loud.

"Only when I'm in my human form am I more like a half-demon." answered the fox demon.

I blinked, "Hang on a sec. You're telling me you have a demon form?"

"That's correct."

"So...which name should I be calling you anyways?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"When we are in public around humans, please call me by my human name. But when we are here at the temple you may call me Kurama." he answered.

Kazuma chose to add to the conversation, "And if his demon form comes out he goes by Yoko."

I looked at Kazuma in confusion, "You make it sound like his demon form is another personality or something."

"Well...that's kinda because it is." Yusuke said.

"Huh?"

"Yoko is different from me. And yet at the same time isn't. It's kind of hard to explain." Kurama said. Although he didn't show it in his voice, his Heart's Song said he was worried about something.

"What are you worried about Shu-, Kurama?" I asked, correcting myself when I started to call him Shuichi.

He blinked in surprise for a moment before answering, "When females meet Yoko they tend to..."

"What? Go crazy?" I ask.

"Exactly."

I shrugged, "Must be one hell of a good looking guy if gals go crazy upon meeting him."

The blue haired girl giggled, "Yoko is a real good looking guy. You'd probably go crazy too, if you saw him."

"One: I wouldn't go crazy over this Yoko guy. Two: who the hell are you anyways?" I said, curiousity in my voice with my question.

"Oh that's right, I haven't introduced myself! I'm Botan, the pilot of the river Styx, also known as the grim reaper! I assist Yusuke and the boys on their missions as Spirit Detectives! It's a pleasure to meet you Ayla!" she bubbly replied with a smile.

_Spirit Detectives? What the hell is a Spirit Detective? I really hope that she isn't always __**this**__ bubbly. I might go crazy and injure her._ "Did you just say the grim reaper?"

"Right-o!"

I felt my eye start to twitch at her bubbly-ness. I looked at her kimono and then back at her face. "If you're the grim reaper, then why in the world are you wearing a _pink_ kimono?"

Yusuke had just taken a drink of his tea and ended up choking on it, before he started laughing.

Botan looked annoyed at my question. "What's wrong with pink? It happens to be a lovely color."

"What's wrong with it? Pink is only good in small quantities. Go over that quantity and you or whatever that amount of pink is on looks like someone soaked it in bottles of Pepto-Bismal." I replied. By now Kazuma had joined Yusuke in full blown laughter.

Botan glared at me before turning to Kurama. "Bring out Yoko." she told him.

"Botan I don't think..." he started to say.

"Bring him out now!" she yelled. Turning back to me with her arms crossed and an evil smile on her face she said, "Now we'll see if what you said about how you wouldn't go crazy over Yoko is true."

_Ah hell, she's gone crazy. She must like pink more than I originally thought._

I looked at Kurama who was looking worried. "You heard her Kurama. Bring Yoko out." I said.

Hiei stiffened behind me and tightened his arms on my waist to the point of it feeling uncomfortable. _~Hiei, would you please loosen your arms a bit? You're kinda making it painful to breathe.~_ At first I thought he'd ignore me but a moment later he loosened his arms a little. _~Thank you.~_

"Ayla..." Kurama tried to speak.

Cutting him off I huffed, "Just bring him out so we can get this over with."

With a sigh he stood up and walked to the end of the table. After closing his eyes, his energy spiked, and then he was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. After a few moments the smoke cleared and there stood a man that had to be around seven to seven and a half feet tall, in clothes that were white. His hair was long, down to his waist and silver in color, the ears on top of his head were the same color. The color of his eyes were gold.

_Wait a second, gold?_ I suddenely remembered that day when I first met Kurama and told him that I knew he wasn't like other humans. _I thought it had just been the way the light was hitting his eyes at that time. Guess it must have been Yoko peeking out for a second. Botan was right, Yoko is a real good looking guy, although in the pretty boy way. Or would that be pretty man way? Cause he obviously ain't no boy. No wonder Kurama's got the pretty boy look if this is what he's always looked like as a demon._

"Well, if it isn't the druid descendant. I am Yoko, and it's a pleasure to meet you." Yoko said. He spoke in a voice that was deep, the kind of deep that is meant for grabbing a woman's attention and holding it for a long time.

"Nice to meet you too, I guess." I replied. I could hear the surprise in everyone's Heart's Songs at my reply, except for Grams. Nothing I do really ever surprises her.

Yoko walked over to me and Hiei, as he walked I caught a glimpse of a tail. It was silver just like his hair and ears. If it hadn't twitched to one side as he walked I wouldn't have seen it. Once in front of Hiei and I, he knelt on one knee with his arms resting on the other leg. Even kneeling as he was I had to look up.

"You only guess? Now that's not very nice. I'm hurt." said Yoko.

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Oh please, the only thing hurt is your ego. And that's because I'm not going gaga over you like other women. You may be a good-looking guy, but it's in that pretty boy way, like Shuichi only in a different way."

Raising an eyebrow Yoko asked, "And what does that have to do with your reaction to me little druid?"

"It's really quite simple. Actually I'm surprised you haven't figured it out with what I've said. After all, being a thief means you have to be clever. Guess you're only clever when it comes to stealing, not when it comes to figuring out why a gal doesn't go crazy 'bout you." I replied in a sarcastic manner.

Hiei quietly chuckled at my response to Yoko, while Yusuke and Kazuma both tried to not laugh. Hearing Hiei's amusement to what I said made me smile.

Yoko chuckled, "I see why Shuichi warned me about you. You are rather clever in your own way. Now, would you care to actually answer my question little druid?"

"I'll only answer it if you stop calling me that." I retorted.

"But it suits, for you are both a druid and little in stature."

Frowning at the silver fox before me, I suddenly had an idea pop in my head to get him to not call me 'little druid' anymore. I decided to use telepathy to have this conversation, since I didn't want the others to possibly use this against him at some point. After all, it was something that I wanted to be able to use against him at another time if needed.

_~Well then Yoko, you wouldn't mind me calling you Yo-yo in return then.~_

Amazingly a look of horror didn't appear on his face to match the horror he felt at the thought of me calling him by such a ridiculous name. _~You wouldn't.~_

I smirked and raised an eyebrow. _~You sure about that...Yo-yo?~_

If I hadn't been watching Yoko as closely as I was I'd have missed him twitch. It was that small of a twitch. _~You have proven your point. I will refrain from calling you that...for now.~_ "I'll stop calling you that. Now answer my question Ayla." Yoko said out loud for the others to hear.

Nodding I answered, "Like I've said, it's really quite simple Yoko. Pretty boys just don't draw my attention at all."

"I see. I'll be taking my leave now." Yoko said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Coughing from the smoke, I asked in annoyance, "Couldn't he have moved away before going poof?"

"I apologize for Yoko not having moved away first." Kurama said, his voice coming from within the smoke.

"Not your fault Kurama." I told him once the smoke had cleared. I looked at Botan, "I told you I wouldn't go crazy over him."

"You really didn't go crazy over him..." she said, sounding and looking a bit bewildered.

"Surprised?"

"Of course I'm surprised! Yoko's known as a ladies man after all!" Botan yelled, sounding really annoyed that her idea to make me look bad hadn't worked.

"Hey Botan?"

"What?"

"How about we both agree to disagree on the color pink? I'm not saying that I'll stop complaining about it, but I'll try to not get in your face about it. Alright?" I asked.

Smiling she nodded, "Alright. Sounds good to me."

"Now then, back to what was being said before." I said and started ticking off fingers. "Hiei and Yukina are full-blooded demons. While Kurama is a half-demon, yet full-blooded demon, through some kind of merger. Leaving Yusuke being a half-demon through an ancestor." Turning to Yusuke and grinning I asked, "What's your story dimwit?"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Yusuke yelled, slamming his fist on the table.

"If you break my table, you're buying me another one." Grams warned him.

I shrugged, "As far as I'm concerned Yusuke, you are a dimwit. So you best learn to deal with it. Now could you please tell me your story? Not to mention why earlier Hiei called you detective, and Botan referred to you and the others as...What was it again? Spirit Detectives?"

"Fine." Yusuke grumbled before telling me his story.

"When I was fourteen years old, I was hit by a car trying to save a kid and died. I was given a chance to come back to life by Koenma, the prince of Reikai. After I came back to life Koenma made me a Spirit Detective. During the first of my missions I met Hiei and Kurama. They had stolen some artifacts from Reikai, so I had to get the artifacts back and arrest the two of them. Later on Kuwabara joined me on another mission. Kurama and Hiei also joined me in order to have what they had done before cleared. We had worked together for a little over a year when on one of our hardest missions I ended up dying again. My demon blood from my ancestor woke up and brought me back to life. Only this time as a half-demon. I wasn't able to stay a Spirit Detective for a few years after that, but Koenma needs all four of us to help his ass keep the worlds from going crazy. So I'm back to being a Spirit Detective again."

I asked the first thing that came to mind. "You've seriously died twice?"

"Yep. Hopefully I won't die again until I'm really old." Yusuke answered.

All I could manage to do at this point was shake my head. _He really died twice? Yusuke is one crazy guy._ "So the four of you have been working together for several years now?"

"Indeed we have. We are on a mission right now as a matter of fact." said Kurama.

"What's the mission? Or are you not allowed to talk about it?" I was really curious about what it could be.

"We can talk about it. Actually Koenma told us to tell you about our mission after Genkai told you about the other worlds and demons." Kazuma spoke up.

I blinked for a few moments at that tidbit of information. "You're _supposed_ to tell me what your mission is? Alright, what is it then?" _Why would the prince of the Reikai want them to tell me their mission?_

Hiei was the one to give me the answer. "Our mission is to protect you from those who would try to harm you while your powers are unstable. We are also to train you to use whatever your new power is for combat."

_Well, that answers that question. Their mission involves me. Or should I say that I basically am the mission?_ "Protect and train me?" I asked, turning my head to look at Hiei.

"Yes. Demons will be trying to come after you from now on to try and either take your abilities away or feed off of you in some manner." he answered.

I couldn't help but cringe at the idea of someone wanting to 'feed off' me. It didn't sound pleasant in the least. "Feed off of me? That is one really disturbing thought that I wish wasn't in my head. So now I'm going to have to keep my guard up all the time? Because of my abilities?"

"Not just because of your abilities Ayla. But also because you are my granddaughter." Grams interjected.

My confusion must have been showing on my face because she answered my question without me even having to ask what she meant. "I've killed a great number of demons in my life and made many enemies. So there will be demons that would want to kill you simply to get to me. This is part of why I didn't tell you about the other worlds and demons."

Nodding I asked, "And the other part?"

With a sigh she replied, "I also wanted you to have the chance to live as normal a childhood as possible. There was also the fact that you needed to have more knowledge of martial arts and your powers so that you would be able to protect yourself from demons that meant you harm. So yes, you are going to have to be on guard at all times now that you are living in Japan. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you all of this sooner, or have Aya and Natala tell you what little they know."

"Dad and Mom know about demons?" I asked, surprised that my parents knew something about demons.

"They know of their existence and that some demons are dangerous to be around, but that's about it."

I uttered a sigh of my own, "I don't think I'm up to hearing anymore stuff like that for the time being."

It suddenly dawned on me that Yoko had called me a druid. _How the hell did he know that? I only just found that out myself a little while ago._ "Hey, I just realized that Yoko called me a druid. How the heck did Yoko know that I'm a druid. I mean, I only just found that out myself."

Grams looked at me with curiosity, "How did you find out Ayla?"

"Um, this might sound a little weird, but a representation of my ancestors in my mind sorta confirmed it." I replied, feeling a little foolish with how my answer sounded.

Yusuke looked confused, "What do you mean sorta confirmed it?"

"Well I started to ask the question 'That I'm a druid or something?' Immediately after I said the words 'I'm a druid', it felt like something inside of me just sorta snapped open. Like some part of me had been waiting to be acknowledged. My ancestors' rep confirmed it. Although it said I was a descendant of the first druids. Whoever they're supposed to be. Hiei said that he and the fox, which I guess meant Kurama, would explain once we got back from my mind." I answered.

"Allow me to explain who the first druids were." Kurama said, "The first druids were a demon race from the Makai. They were a very powerful, yet peaceful race. Preferring peace to battle, they would usually only fight if it was absolutely necessary. At times when major battles would break out, causing many of either demons or humans to die, they would come to heal the injuries of those on both sides and help bring an end to the fighting. Peaceful means of doing this were always their first choice, but at times the only way to bring an end to the fighting was through force. When they fought, they were quite the force to be reckoned with."

_My ancestors were this really powerful demon race? If I didn't have powers I wouldn't have been able to believe any of this. The way Kurama keeps talking about the first druids in past tense is really starting to worry me. Something must have happened to them._ "Kurama? Why do you keep referring to the first druids in the past tense? What happened to them?" I asked, unable to keep the worry out of my voice.

"They were wiped out five thousand years ago." Kurama replied.

Hearing that really shocked me. So much that I couldn't find my voice for a few minutes.

"You never did answer my question about that Kurama." Yusuke said, "What the hell do you mean wiped out?"

Hiei spoke up, "Exactly what he said detective. They were all killed."

"If these guys were as powerful as Kurama says then how the heck were they all killed?" asked Kazuma.

"Unfortunately, no one knows. All anyone does know is that in all of the villages where they lived were filled with their corpses." Kurama answered.

"Everyone in the villages?" I quietly asked the red head.

He replied in an equally quiet tone, "From the eldest all the way to the youngest." For a few moments no one spoke.

Kazuma was the one to break the silence, asking, "Why would someone do something so horrible, like wiping out an entire race?"

Without really thinking about it I said, "Someone would think of a way to do it if they have enough fear, hate, or prejudice. Look at what Hitler and the Germans did to the Jews during World War II. They tried to wipe all of them out. So it's not really a question of _why_ someone would do such a thing, it's more a question of _how_ they did it. After all, according to Kurama the first druids were super powerful. Meaning whoever or whatever wiped them out five thousand years ago had to be really powerful. Even more powerful than the druids themselves."

"Which makes one wonder if whatever wiped out the first druids is still alive." Grams spoke up. With those words everyone looked at her. "Think about it. If whatever killed all the druids was a demon, it could still be alive to this day."

Kurama picked up where she left off. "Meaning that if word gets out that Ayla is an awakened descendant, whatever killed the first druids five thousand years ago, could very well come after Ayla to kill her."

"Oh well that's just _lovely_." I groaned. My life was turning out to be a hell of a lot more complicated that I'd ever thought it'd be.

"So we're gonna have to keep an eye out for both the usual demons _and_ whatever took out the druids? This mission just keeps getting better and better." Yusuke complained.

Yukina and Kira came out of the kitchen at that moment with some food they'd fixed. Kazuma and Botan helped them bring the rest of it out. While Kurama, Yusuke, and Grams gathered at the end of the table to continue talking about the mission.

Because Yusuke was looking at Grandma Genkai he didn't see me glare at him. It wasn't like I had been the one to ask them to protect me from something in particular and then suddenly they had to protect me from something else that hadn't been mentioned too. Besides Hiei had said that part of their mission was to protect me from demons. Meaning _any_ demon that meant me harm. Whether they were what Yusuke called the 'usual' demon or some more powerful demon.

All Yusuke's complaining did was make me feel like I was being nothing more than an inconvenience for them.

Smacking Yusuke upside the head was a really appealing thought at the moment. But I wasn't able to actually do so for two reasons. One, I was still feeling like shit from when I lost control. Since I had the feeling that if I even attempted to walk I'd end up falling either flat on my face or ass. Meaning any major movement would have been a bit problematic. Two, Hiei still didn't seem to be inclined to let me go. He had lightly squeezed me with his arms the moment I glared at Yusuke.

Even though I knew it wouldn't accomplish anything, I looked down to glare at Hiei's arms. Needless to say my glare didn't last for more than a moment when I realized that the left sleeve of his shirt was torn and his left arm was covered in scratches and blood. I then noticed that my nails had dry blood on them. _When the hell did I scratch the hell out of Hiei? Did I do that when I lost control?_

Gently touching Hiei's left arm I quietly asked, "Hiei? I scratched your arm up when I lost control earlier didn't I?" Hiei stiffened for a moment when I first touched his arm, but relaxed again a second later. His silence to my question gave me my answer. "I'm sorry for doing that to your arm Hiei."

"You weren't yourself. Don't let it bother you onna."

A small smile tugged at my mouth with the way he had accepted my apology. "Will you let me clean and bandage your arm?" I asked turning my head to look at him. His face didn't give anything away as he nodded, though I could tell he was slightly surprised at my question.

"Here's the first aid kit Ayla." Kurama said from out of sight.

Not having realized that Kurama had gotten so close, I jerked and turned to him in surprise. "Don't sneak up on me like that fox!" I admonished him with a glare.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I heard you talking to Hiei about his arm and remembered that it needed to be treated. So I went and got the first aid kit." Kurama really did look apologetic about sneaking up on me.

_I could have sworn I was being quiet when I was talking to Hiei. So how'd he hear me? Oh right, he's a fox demon, duh Ayla. And damn does he walk quiet. He scared the crap out of me. It's probably just second nature for him to walk so quietly. After all, he did say that he used to live as a thief when he was Yoko Kurama._

After glaring at Kurama one last time for sneaking up on me, I took the first aid kit from him. It was only after I had moved away from Hiei a little, turned around and opened the kit that I realized it wasn't like the ones you buy at a store. This one did have gauze bandages of course, but instead of the usual ointments or creams there was an assortment of herbs. Grams had given me one just like it years ago, when I had shown a great interest in herbal remedies. She'd also taught me how to prepare and apply different remedies for all sorts of injuries and ailments.

Without having to say a word to Kurama, he had brought me two clean cloths and two small bowls. Of the two cloths one was wet and the other was dry. One of the bowls was empty, while the other was filled with water. He handed me the wet cloth which I used to wipe off as much of the dried blood on my fingers as I could. I didn't want to get anything in the herbs that shouldn't be in them, like dried blood. Next he set the dry cloth and bowls down next to me, then backed away so as to not crowd me. After he had sat down I ignored him and everyone else, now focusing entirely on the task of taking care of Hiei's arm.

Taking the herbs I needed to mix for the salve that would help to speed up the healing of the scratches, I placed them into the empty bowl. Once that was done I added the proper amount of water from the other bowl. I then mixed the herbs and water together until they had become a smooth paste. Now that the salve was mixed I set it aside for the time being so that it could thicken a bit.

Picking up the dry cloth I dipped a small portion of it in the bowl of water. With the wet part I then began to clean each and every scratch on Hiei's arm. Occasionally I would change to another part of the cloth and wet it before resuming my cleaning.

As I made my way up his arm I glanced up at him. It was then I noticed the couple of scratches on his face. I was even more gentle in cleaning those particular scratches. He had stiffened for a moment in what I believed to be surprise at my touching his face before relaxing again. Though I was unsure, since the majority of my focus was on making sure that each scratch was thoroughly cleansed. One thing I was sure of however, was that as I tended to Hiei, I felt as though we were somehow becoming more and more connected.

Once I was satisfied that all the scratches were clean enough I placed the now dirty rag beside the bowl of water. Next I took the salve that was now properly thickened and applied a coating of it on each of the scratches on Hiei's arm. Some of the scratches had turned out to be a little deeper than the rest, so I made sure to put a bit more of the salve on them. After I was sure that every scratch on his arm had been taken care of I set the salve down and picked up a roll of gauze. Wrapping it around his arm I made sure that it wasn't too loose or too tight. With his arm taken care of to my satisfaction I returned to tending his face.

There were a total of four scratches on Hiei's face. Three of them were around an inch long in the middle of his left cheek. While the fourth was a little smaller and on the right side of his chin. I gently put the salve on all of them and taped a small gauze pad to cover the three scratches on his cheek. Since using a gauze pad on the one scratch would have looked odd I rummaged through the first aid kit to see if there were any regular band-aids. Turned out there was a box that had one left in it. With the last band-aid in place I was done patching up Hiei.

"There, that should do it. That'll help you to heal those scratches faster. Although I suspect that you're already a fast healer given that you are a demon." I said to Hiei, as I began to clean up the mess I'd made with the first aid kit. I watched him from the corner of my eye as he moved his arm around, checking how much range of movement he had.

"Hn, not bad onna. You've dressed wounds before." Hiei said looking me in the eye. The way he had said the last part made it a statement instead of a question.

Nodding before finishing cleaning up, I answered, "Grams taught me when I was younger how to dress wounds. She told me that I needed to know how to take care of wounds properly. Especially considering how many of my own I tend to accumulate."

I looked at him when he quietly chuckled. Seeing that amused smirk of his, I couldn't help but smirk back at him. Usually it annoyed the hell out of me when someone found my klutziness amusing. But for some reason that I couldn't fathom, Hiei's amusement didn't bother me in the least. Oddly enough I found it comforting. Though why I found it comforting was beyond me.

"Ayla, Hiei, come and eat the food that I helped Yukina make before it gets cold." Kira said, from her spot at the table.

The mention of food made me realize just how hungry I really was. My stomach grumbled loud enough for everyone to hear and I blushed with embarrassment at the sound. "I'm gonna put the first aid kit up first. I'll be right back." I said starting to stand up. Within less than a second it seemed, the kit was gone and I was sitting at the table with Kira to my right and Hiei to my left. "What the hell?" I asked completely confused.

"You're still not up to walking around yet onna."

Hiei's words made me look at him. "I take it you're the one that did something with the kit and moved me to the table in the blink of an eye?"

"Hn."

Rolling my eyes I mumbled, "Translation: Of course, now be quiet and eat onna." Which is exactly what I started to do when I noticed Yusuke and Kazuma staring at me and Hiei. I'd had my fill of being stared at for one day and wanted them to stop. Glaring at the two of them I spoke, "It's very rude to stare you know."

"Oh, uh, sorry Ayla." Kazuma said. He stopped staring at us and started flirting with Yukina.

Yusuke kept right on staring. Mostly at me. I was getting more annoyed by the second by his constant staring. _~Keep staring at me Yusuke and I'm going to claw your eyes out the next chance I get.~_

Yusuke's face paled at my telepathic threat. He stopped staring and turned to make fun of Kazuma. Part of me didn't like the fact that I had to resort to threats just to get him to stop staring. But the other part of me thought it was totally justified considering how he was acting like such a jackass earlier.

I ate the delicious food that Yukina and Kira had made. Eating just as much, if not more, than either Yusuke or Kazuma. Except I didn't scarf my food and make a mess like they did. I was feeling tired again by the time everyone was finished eating. Yukina, Kira, and Botan started to clean up the mess from our meal and I stood up to help them.

However, the next thing I knew after standing up was darkness.


	16. Energy?

_**TheHeartsPath: Hi everyone! Sorry that I haven't updated in so long. Last few months have been extremely crazy. My sister had her baby and so the insanity level of life increased. So I'm back and gonna try to write more chapters for y'all to enjoy! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 16: Energy?**

Ayla's POV

Waking up in another room is rather disorienting.

It took me a few minutes to realize that I was in my bedroom at Grams' temple. Another minute passed before I noticed a few more things. Like the fact that I was wearing the clothes I'd had on when I first arrived instead of my kimono. I couldn't see much of my room laying in bed as I was. But it was enough to tell me that my kimono wasn't in here. A quick look out the window of my room showed that there wasn't much light outside. _Dang I was out for awhile. It's already almost evening now._

I felt better than I had before I'd blacked out. Like all of my energy was back. No longer did I feel like I was going to be exhausted just from being conscious. Even though I was feeling better I knew that I needed to be careful to not overexert myself. At least until the stuff that was happening to me was over with. Or pretty damn close to it.

"Wonder how long it'll take." I mumbled to myself.

Hopefully it wouldn't take more than a couple of months for my energy to straighten out. That was how long it had taken when my telepathic and empathic powers had shown up. If it took longer than that I was gonna go crazy. I cringed at the thought of it possibly taking longer than a couple months. Thinking about how long wasn't going to help matters any. So I shoved those thoughts away and sat up.

The door opened not even a second later. "Oh, you're awake. Are you feeling any better Ayla?" Yukina asked.

Smiling I answered, "A lot better thanks. What time is it?"

"It's 7am." she said, returning my smile.

"What?! I thought it was evening considering the light coming in from the window!" I yelled in surprise. I'd been unconscious for a hell of alot longer than I first thought. No wonder I felt better. Yukina's eyes had widened in surprise at my outburst. Sighing I said, "Sorry 'bout that Yukina. I didn't mean to yell at you."

"It's alright Ayla. You were taken by surprise."

Getting out of bed I asked, "What exactly happened when I blacked out yesterday?" _Still can't believe that I was out for so long._

"Everyone was startled by you blacking out like that. Thank goodness Hiei was next to you when it happened. He caught you the moment you started to fall." she explained.

"Knowing my luck I'd have gotten hurt if he hadn't caught me." I said turning around and making my bed.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

Chuckling I look at her, "I'm guessing Grams hasn't said anything about my klutziness?" Yukina shook her head. "I'm a terrible klutz. You'll probably see for yourself soon enough."

After the bed was made I sat on it, inviting Yukina to sit by gesturing at the space next to me. Once she sat down I asked, "So what happened after Hiei caught me? Did he carry me in here?"

Nodding she answered, "Yes he did. He laid you on the bed then left so that Botan and I could get you out of your kimono."

"Where is my kimono anyway?"

"In your dresser. I cleaned off the blood that got on it from Hiei's arm." she said pointing to the dresser that I forgot was in the room.

"I didn't even think of there possibly being blood on my kimono. Not even when I saw what I'd done to Hiei's arm." I cringed when I remembered what his arm had looked like before I had taken care of it.

"That's because you were more concerned about Hiei's arm than anything else Ayla." Yukina reminded me.

"True." I answered with a nod. "So what's everyone up to now?"

"Genkai was talking to Kira about her empathic powers and Kurama went to find out where Hiei disappeared to. After he finds where Hiei went he's going to start making breakfast." Yukina answered.

"What about Yusuke and Kazuma?"

"Oh, they're playing video games."

"Video games...you've gotta be kidding me." I muttered, shaking my head before continuing in a normal tone, "Shouldn't they be doing something more, I don't know, productive?"

Yukina chuckled, "Kurama asked them the same thing. They said that they were because they were working on getting to the next level in the game."

Rolling my eyes I said, "Those two are idiots."

Suddenly the door opened and Kazuma fell into the room. Yusuke was standing in the doorway attempting to be nonchalant and failing miserably. "The guy on the floor is the idiot, not me." he said.

Kazuma shot to his feet and yelled in Yusuke's face, "Who're you calling an idiot Urameshi?!"

"Gee Kuwabara, who else would I be calling an idiot besides you?" Yusuke teased.

"Alright that's it! Let's you and me take this outside right now and settle this like real men!" shouted Kazuma.

"What's the matter Kuwabara? Afraid to lose in front of Yu-ki-na?" taunted Yusuke. Kazuma then tackled Yusuke out of the room and they disappeared down the hall in a scuffle.

_Speak of the devil and he shall appear._ "Are they always like that Yukina?"

Shaking her head she answered, "They aren't always like that."

Raising an eyebrow I asked, "Just most of the time?" After thinking about it for a couple moments Yukina nodded. "Wonderful..." I mumbled. _I'm gonna have to make extra sure to keep my emotions from getting the better of me. Especially around those two idiots. Otherwise one of them may end up dead. Or both..._

"What in the world was all of that noise about? Are Yusuke and Kuwabara going at it again?" a female voice said from the direction of my door.

_Oh man, please don't be Botan. I don't think I can deal with her being so damn bubbly first thing in the morning. Not to mention all that pink._ I barely managed to keep from shuddering at the thought of Botan's kimono. Looking at the doorway once again I saw that my silent prayer had been in vain...at least part of it. _She's not wearing the kimono! Thank you whatever god or deity it is that has taken mercy on me!_ "Hey Botan. All that noise was them." I said in way of greeting.

"Good morning Ayla. How are you feeling?" she asked. Surprisingly she wasn't being as bubbly as I thought she'd be.

"Better, thanks." I was about to say more when my stomach decided to inform me that it wanted food. Loud enough for both Yukina and Botan to hear.

Giggling Botan said, "Sounds like you could use some breakfast."

While blushing I mumbled, "I am kind of hungry."

Yukina got up saying, "I'm going to go to the kitchen and help Kurama finish making breakfast."

"Alright, we'll head that way in a minute Yukina." Botan told her. _Huh? Wait a minute. What does she mean by __**we**__?_ Smiling at us Yukina nodded and left the room. Leaving me alone with the perky grim reaper. With Yukina gone Botan turned to me with a look of concern. "Ayla are you sure that you're feeling better?"

Tilting my head to the side in thought I answered, "I do feel better compared to yesterday anyways. Why are you asking Botan?"

"Because your energy seems a bit more unstable today. I mean unstable in a slightly different way from yesterday." she replied.

I just sat there and blinked at her for a couple of minutes. "You just confused the hell out of me with the way you said that."

"Sorry, let me try that again." Botan said with an apologetic smile, "What I mean is while your energy was already unstable it had a certain...um, feel to it I guess you could say. That feeling is still there but it also seems like there's another feeling too. I hope that makes more sense."

Nodding I replied, "Yeah, it _does_ make more sense that way."

"You don't seem surprised about it." Botan said.

I just looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Honestly Botan, why should I be surprised about my energy being more unstable? Think about what I found out yesterday. There are two other worlds, the Reikai and Makai; confirmation that demons really do exist; meeting the grim reaper; and also Spirit Detectives and their mission to protect and train me. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that I'm a descendant of a really powerful demon race that was wiped out five thousand years ago!" By the time I finished my list consternation had thoroughly colored my voice.

I felt my energy start to spike and immediately tried to calm myself the way Grams had taught me. By closing my eyes and focusing on slowing down both my breathing and heartbeat. Now normally I don't have much trouble calming down this way, but with my energy already wacky it was harder than usual. A _lot_ harder.

"Botan it might be a good idea if you went on ahead of me to breakfast. I'll be there as soon as I can manage." I spoke quietly, still focusing on calming myself.

"Um, alright. See you in the dining room then." she replied sounding worried again. After I heard her leave the room and close the door I tuned out everything but my breathing and heartbeat.

My heart felt like it was beating as fast as a humming bird flaps its wings. My lungs felt as though they were being squeezed and released just as rapidly as my heart was beating. Needless to say both my heart and lungs had chosen to fight on the issue of slowing down. It finally took me imagining them as becoming heavier to get them to start to slow down. It took awhile, but after that I managed to get them under control. Which in turn got my energy to settle down. With everything back in control I opened my eyes.

And promptly had the living daylights scared out of me. Thus falling off my bed and onto the floor when I jumped in fright.

Just what was it that startled me so damn bad? How about having someone standing smack dab in front of you the moment you open your eyes? When you thought you were alone? And just who was it standing in front of me, smirking with amusement, at scaring me half to death?

"You should pay more attention to what is going on around you onna."

The answer: Hiei.

Glaring up at him from the floor I responded, "You should pay more attention to knocking on people's doors to ask for entrance Hiei."

I was getting to my feet when he replied, "Hn. Botan left the door open when she left. She seemed upset by whatever was going on in here, so I came to find out what happened."

_The door was open huh? Not bloody likely Hiei. I was having trouble with my energy not my hearing. And I distinctly heard the door __**close**__ behind Botan when she left. So why are you lying about it?_

I crossed my arms and gave Hiei a look that said I wasn't buying what he was saying. "Hiei, do you really expect me to believe that you don't already know what happened? After all, you and the others are all probably keeping tabs on my energy. Probably to make sure of where I am. Or am I wrong?"

He didn't say anything in response. Nor did his eyes show anything. _Damn he's good at the no emotions showing in the eyes._ However his Heart's Song held a bit of surprise and amusement. Though what the hell he was amused about escaped me.

Sighing I said, "You know what? Forget it. I'm too hungry at the moment to deal with this. Let's go and get some breakfast." Going around him I headed for the door. Opening it I looked over my shoulder at Hiei. "Well? You coming along or not?" I asked.

"Hn."

I rolled my eyes at his monosyllabic answer and left the room. He came out a moment later without closing the door behind him. Glaring at his back for a moment as he kept walking I shut the door. Then I hurried to catch up with him. Once I had done so I walked with him deciding to stay quiet and just enjoy his company.

"The difference in your energy that Botan mentioned, don't worry about it." Hiei suddenly said.

I looked at him in surprise as I wondered how he knew. A moment later I realized that he'd just proved that he knew _exactly_ what had happened. Looking away from him I watched him from the corner of my eye as I asked, "So if you came to find out what happened, how is it that you knew about Botan telling me that?"

He stopped walking for the barest of moments before resuming. "Hn."

I found the way he reacted to realizing he'd just given himself away amusing. But I chose to not make a big deal of it and settled for a small grin along with a chuckle. He in turn glared at me but it just made my grin bigger. "So why shouldn't I worry about the energy difference? Do you know what it is?" I asked, grinning like the cat that got the canary. Hiei didn't respond immediately. In fact he looked a little stunned. "Hiei? You okay?"

Blinking he looked away. "Hn, I'm fine onna."

Raising an eyebrow I said, "Okay..."

_Well that was odd. Wonder what that was about. Wait...is he...blushing?...Nah, that can't be. Maybe he's flushed from anger? But why would he be angry? Could he be mad at himself for having given himself away about earlier? Hmmm...wonder what it could be? Only thing I can tell is that his Heart's Song is a mixed up mess again. Can't figure out what he's feeling right now. I swear, he's the only person whose Heart's Song gives me so much trouble when trying to understand it._

When he didn't say anything else I frowned. "Well? Why shouldn't I worry about it and do you know what the energy difference is or not?" I asked feeling slightly annoyed. Amusement in his Heart's Song picked up at my tone. Guess now it was Hiei's turn to be amused.

"Of course I know." was his arrogant reply.

"...Would it kill you to give me an answer that was more than a few words? And don't you dare reply with a simple 'Hn' Hiei." I responded while glaring.

Looking at me with that trademark smirk of his, he answered with his other trademark, "Hn."

I could feel my eye twitching at this and glared harder. His smirk grew before he looked ahead again.

"Of all the males in existence, I just had to get stuck dealing with the most arrogant one ever." I grumbled as I stomped ahead. Stomping off may have been childish but I didn't care. It made me feel better dammit.

"Demon energy." Hiei said from behind me.

I stopped walking, turned and looked at him. "Huh?"

He stopped walking once he was next to me. "The energy difference, it's your demon energy. It's starting to get strong enough to mix with your spirit energy and be noticeable." he calmly said.

"Oh...So it's normal?" I asked.

With a nod he explained, "It's a normal occurrence that happens to humans when they have demon blood that wakes up and they are still alive. Though the majority of humans that have this happen are the child of a demon and a human. Not a descendant from an ancestor like you or Yusuke."

Confused I asked, "Um, but wasn't Yusuke dead when his demon blood woke up? Was that just a coincidence or did that have to do with the type of demon that he is descended from?"

"Yes, he was dead when his woke up. Yusuke is the descendant of the Mazoku. Only when a descendant is strong enough will their demon blood awaken upon their death and revive them." Hiei answered.

"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up." I said as I started walking again. "Thanks for letting me know what was going on with my energy Hiei. Now let's get ourselves some breakfast!"

Hiei's POV

"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up."

Hearing those words from the onna made my heart stop. The fact that she thought about herself dying, even for a moment, for any reason, bothered me greatly.

_"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up."_

She had started walking again right after that. "Thanks for letting me know what was going on with my energy Hiei. Now let's get ourselves some breakfast!" she said. For the rest of the way we walked in silence.

_"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up."_

I tried over and over again to get those words out of my head. I couldn't understand why they were bothering me so damn much. I wish I knew why they did, but I don't.

_"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up."_

There was something I did know though. Something that I did understand. Something that I now vowed to always do.

_"Darn...I'm glad I don't have to die for mine to wake up."_

I would never let her die.


	17. First Day of Training

_**TheHeartsPath: Hi everyone! I've written another chapter for y'all to read! I really wasn't expecting to get this one done so soon. Oh, also I've gone over the first few chapters that had those really big paragraphs and fixed them. So now they should be easier to read. Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

NOTES:

Bento – A single-portion takeout or home-packed meal.

**Chapter 17: First Day of Training**

Genkai's POV

Lighting my cigarette, I watched as Ayla and the others left the temple. They were heading to an area that wasn't overly close to the temple. Just a precaution in case a particular someone's energy got out of control. Ayla had mentioned at breakfast that she wanted to start training right away. Which had surprised the hell out of the boys. Particularly that dimwitted successor of mine.

I chuckled, remembering the looks on each of their faces. All of them held surprise but each one had held something else at the same time.

Yusuke looked as if he thought my granddaughter was insane. _He even asked her if she was insane. He keeps asking her that and she is going to go insane. And beat the crap out of him as a result. Now that would be something to see. Not to mention it would serve the dimwit right._

Kuwabara had looked horrified at the thought of training with Ayla. _Probably because he hasn't trained with a girl before. Well he's gonna have to get used to it now that Ayla's around. I wonder how she'll react when she finds out that he won't fight her because she's a girl. Knowing Ayla she'll be fighting her temper to keep from harming the boy._

Kurama's face showed strong curiosity. _He had that same curious look yesterday too. When Ayla had referred to training as something interesting to do. Right before she ended up losing control._

That thought made me shudder. Seeing Ayla in that state had scared the shit out of me. Before breakfast this morning, I couldn't have even begun to imagine how much it must have scared her. My granddaughter who never asked for any of this to happen to her. The only reason I had given the go ahead for her training to begin immediately was because of her telepathic plea during breakfast.

_**FLASHBACK: BREAKFAST**_

_ ~Grams? I know it's not really up to me to decide when my training starts but...Please...let me start training today. Even though I don't really remember what happened...I...I don't want it to happen again. Not being able to control myself...I'm afraid Grams...no..I'm..I'm terrified...Terrified of it happening again. At a time when there's no one around to stop me from hurting or...or ki-...killing...someone...I don't care how hard the training is. I don't want to go through that again. So please Grams, please let me start training.~_

_**END FLASHBACK**_

I hated the fact that she was so terrified of what had happened. She shouldn't have to be feeling that way, but she was. And the only thing I can do to help her is to let her train like she wants. Train to be more in control and stronger.

"Why the hell not?!"

Taking another drag of my cigarette, I found my thoughts focusing on Hiei and Ayla. It had been Hiei that had yelled. With his tone of voice and the way he was glaring at Ayla it was obvious he was annoyed with her. She said something in reply but I couldn't hear what it was. But I could see the mischievousness on her face as she spoke. From the look on his face she'd surprised him with her reply.

What happened next surprised me so much that I almost dropped my cigarette. Hiei had suddenly burst into laughter. It was one of those things that I had always thought I'd never witness Hiei do. But there he was, laughing. Whatever it was that Ayla had said must have greatly amused him.

_Another sign that the two of them are connected on another level from the rest of us. That reminds me of that look he had earlier..._

Hiei...the look on his face had caught my attention more than the others. Curiosity had been on his face just as it had been on Kurama's. But there was something else that hadn't been on any of the others. Protectiveness. In a way it was strange to see him with that expression. I've seen him with that look when Yukina's safety is involved. Shaking my head, I admitted to myself that this particular look was different. Not just protective but...possessive.

_Almost as if he thought of her as belonging to him. I've seen the way he looks at her when he thinks no one is watching him. There's a gentleness in his gaze that I've never seen before. Heh, he probably doesn't even realize the way he looks at her._

Hiei's POV

"So Ayla, I hear you can make barriers with your spirit energy." Kurama said as we were leaving the temple.

She looked at him in surprise. "How did you kn-...Hiei..."

I glanced at the onna and saw that she was staring straight ahead, glaring. "What is it with you people and automatically blabbing what you know to each other?" she grumbled.

"What's the matter Natura? Mad that you're not in the loop?" Yusuke laughed.

Turning her glare to him she asked, "You still like your eyes where they are Yusuke?" The detective paled at her words and shut his mouth. Ayla smirked at his reaction. "That's what I thought."

The way she had shut the detective up had me smirking too. _With the way she asked that question she must have used a similar threat on him._

"Before we start your training onna, we want to know what other psychic abilities you have besides barriers." I told her.

"I see." she replied. A few moments passed and still she said nothing.

"Well?" I asked.

She looked at me, the picture of innocence, "Well what?"

"Answer my question about your other psychic abilities onna." I was starting to get annoyed.

She smirked, "Sorry, but I can't do that Hiei."

"Why the hell not?!" I yelled while glaring. Now I was truly annoyed with her.

"Because you didn't actually _ask_ me if I had other psychic abilities. You just said that you wanted to know if I had any besides barriers. So you see, I can't answer a question that you _technically_ didn't ask." she replied, mischievousness on her face.

For a moment all I could do was stare at her in surprise. Then I burst out in laughter. Yet again she had done it. She had surprised me in a way that had both amused me and gotten rid of my annoyance. From the looks on the faces of the others my laughter both surprised them and made them curious. Curious as to how the hell Ayla managed to make me act so differently.

Kurama's POV

_Who is this and what has she done with Hiei?_

I couldn't do anything but stare in surprise at Hiei as he laughed. This made it the third time that I have heard Hiei laugh like this. The first time being when Yusuke had come back to life as a half-demon during our fight with Sensui. While the second time was the night we met Ayla.

_It's still a little strange to hear Hiei laughing like this. But I'm happy for him. It's about time that he let himself show his emotions instead of hiding them all the time. And it's all thanks to Ayla that he's finally doing so._

Smiling to myself, I watched the two of them. Hiei laughing and Ayla smiling. I remember what Ayla said to Hiei that night they first met.

_"You should laugh more. Cause you have a nice laugh."_

The way that Ayla had smiled as she said those words told me something. That she would try to make Hiei laugh again. From the smile on her face right now I knew she'd continue to try and make him laugh.

Ayla's POV

"I...can't...breathe..." I huffed as I let myself fall on my back. A small giggle escaped before I could stop it. That of course had me go into a fit of giggles. Normally I'd be bothered about other people seeing me giggling like this, but I was feeling too good to care.

_Damn but I've missed training! I feel great!...Even if I can't really breathe._ The looks on Yusuke's and Kazuma's faces after the first few hours of training had been hilarious. They'd both looked like they thought something was wrong with me for smiling as we were training. Especially when I was basically having my ass kicked.

Remembering their faces had my giggling turn into full blown laughs. Even with my lack of breath I was managing to laugh. Though it probably wasn't a very good idea since I ended up coughing from laughing so much. Now I was having even more trouble breathing than I had before.

The next thing I know someone picks me up and starts pounding on my back. Because I've been training for several hours my body and brain are both in 'combat mode' so to speak. So I snap out of my laughing/coughing fit and yank out of the arms of whoever is holding me. I then jump in the air while spinning and kick them in the head, sending them flying.

Only after I landed did I realize who it was I had kicked. It was Kazuma. My kick didn't send him far since I wasn't using a lot of my spirit energy. Just enough to boost my speed and attacks some. Since my energy isn't stable it was decided that I shouldn't try for more than that during today's training.

"OW! WHY'D YOU KICK ME?!" Kazuma yelled after landing fifteen feet away. He was rubbing the side of his head that I'd kicked and glaring at me.

"Sorry Kazuma, I didn't realize that it was you. My brain and body just went on autopilot when you started beating the hell out of my back." I said.

"I wasn't beating your back! I was trying to help you since you were choking!"

"Kazuma I wasn't choking. I was coughing, there's a difference." I explained.

"Sounded like choking to me." was his reply.

My eye twitched, "And you sound like an idiot but that doesn't mean you are one."

"HEY!"

Yusuke was laughing his head off from where he was standing at the edge of the clearing. He, Kazuma, and Hiei had decided to stand there while Kurama tested my reflexes and for me to try and land a hit on him. Before we'd started training I swear my jaw hit the ground when he'd taken a rose from his hair and changed it into a whip.

So far I haven't even gotten close enough to hit him, though I am getting closer.

There was a whistle like sound coming from behind me. I flung myself to the side barely managing to dodge the attack that I knew was from the former fox thief. Turning around I found that Kurama was quickly closing the distance between us. "Rose Whip Lash!" he yelled, suddenly lashing his whip everywhere that was in my direction.

My eyes widened in shock and all I could think was one thing.

_Oh hell...This is gonna suck!_

_**Several Hours Later**_

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" I hissed while cleaning my injuries from training with Kurama. Even with trying my hardest I hadn't been able to land a hit on him. However, the same could not be said for that damn fox. From head to toe my clothes had tears and I was covered in scratches from that blasted rose whip of his. Some of them were actual cuts but those weren't Kurama's fault. Nope, those were because of my bad judgement on some of my dodges...Okay, so a few of them were because of my klutziness. But let's not talk about that shall we?

Yusuke and Kazuma had gone back to the temple around noon for lunch. Kurama had tried to get me to do the same but I had refused to do so. I was enjoying training too much to want to stop for anything like eating, even if I was feeling hungry. After ten minutes of trying to get me to go and my continuing attempts of trying to hit him, he finally gave up. I thought that I wouldn't have to take a break until I was willing to.

Turned out I was dead wrong.

_**FLASHBACK: EARLY AFTERNOON – TRAINING**_

An hour ago Yusuke and Kazuma had left for lunch. Now they were back and watching Kurama wipe the floor with me. Dodging another of Kurama's attacks I found a possible opening that would allow me to whack him. Not about to let this chance pass by, I focused more of my spirit energy into my legs. Then ran like hell right at Kurama.

Five feet away, the closest I'd gotten to him since we started training and Hiei suddenly appears. Smack dab in between me and Kurama. I tried to stop the moment I saw him. Unfortunately, my klutziness decided that now was the perfect time to rear its ugly head. Meaning I ended up tripping over my own feet and crashing right into Hiei. Thus sending us both to the ground at Kurama's feet.

When we landed I was laying on top of Hiei. Our faces were mere inches away and both our faces held shock. My face started to burn in embarrassment at how close we were.

"S-S-Sorry H-Hiei." I stuttered, getting off of him as quickly and carefully as I could. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't look him in the eyes and ended up staring at the ground. _Why, oh why did my klutziness have to kick in just now? I can't believe that just happened! I was laying on Hiei!_

For a few moments none of us spoke. I think the three of us were trying to get over the shock of what just happened.

"So Hiei...Why did you decide to interfere with Ayla's training?" Kurama asked, breaking the silence.

"The onna needs to take a break and eat something. At this rate she's going to end up passing out." Hiei answered.

"I'm not going to pass out." I growled out.

"Really? Then tell me something onna. Why are you shaking and swaying when all you're doing is standing?" demanded Hiei.

I jerked my head up to glare at him. _Damn it all! I was hoping he wouldn't notice!_ "So? I can still keep training Hiei. It's not like I haven't trained in this condition before."

He glared right back saying, "I could care less if you've trained in this condition before. You aren't going to be doing so this time onna."

"Like hell I'm not! Now get out of the way so I can continue training!" I yelled.

His eyes narrowed in response. Before I could even blink Hiei had suddenly tossed me over his shoulder and begun walking away from Kurama.

"What the? HIEI WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" I screamed at him.

"Hn, what does it look like I'm doing onna? You are taking a break to eat whether you wish to or not." he replied.

"I AM NOT TAKING A BREAK DAMN IT! NOW PUT ME DOWN YOU INFURIATING, ARROGANT, POMPOUS, EGOTISTICAL, DOMINEERING JACKASS!" I bellowed while pounding the hell out of his back.

A moment later I was dumped painfully on my ass. "OW! DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR HIEI?!" I yelled while glaring at him. The damn bastard was smirking.

"You said to put you down onna. You didn't say anything about how." he quipped.

Growling at him, I looked away since I knew he was right on that. I hadn't said anything about putting me down nicely. Just that he put me down. _Why the hell did I have to get stuck with such an arrogant male? Although I think the better question would be this. Why the hell do I have to be attracted to such an arrogant male?_

Something was gently set in my lap. Looking down I saw that it was a wrapped up bento with a pair of chopsticks on it.

"You can go back to training after you've eaten." Hiei said before disappearing in a blur of black.

"Well what do you know? So that's where the lunch Yukina made for you went." Yusuke said. I looked at him in confusion. "When we got back to the temple for lunch and mentioned how you wouldn't stop training to come and eat she decided to make you a bento. She wanted one of us to take it with us so you could eat here instead." he explained.

"I'm still trying to figure out why Hiei had it." Kazuma said.

"Most likely Hiei was getting worried about Ayla and went to get something for her to eat. He didn't seem to like the way she was pushing herself so much." Kurama spoke up. I hadn't noticed when he got over here.

_Hiei was worried about me?_ I looked at the bento and smiled. Unwrapping and opening it, I started eating so I could get back to training. Unable to stop smiling the entire time.

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Now that I was done cleaning my injuries I was trying to figure out if I could use my spirit energy to heal them without losing control. _I need to heal them up as soon as possible. I mean going to school covered in bandages isn't going to help matters with the principal and teachers. They'd probably think that I'd been going around picking fights or something._

I heard soft footsteps behind me and looked up. It was Yukina and she looked worried. "What's wrong Yukina?" I asked.

"When you came back from training with all those cuts I wanted to help you by healing them. But...when Kurama offered to clean them for you, there was this look in your eyes like you were a little scared. You said that you didn't like other people tending to your injuries. So I didn't think you'd want me to help you either." she answered sadly.

"Oh Yukina, I'm so sorry. It's just that..." I trailed off, not sure if I was quite ready to tell someone why.

"Ayla?" Yukina asked kneeling beside me. "What happened that makes you scared of someone helping you when you're hurt?"

I bit my lip and looked at my lap, not saying anything for a few moments. Taking a deep breath and letting it out I started speaking, "When...when I was younger...and living in America I...I was bullied because of my eyes. So I got beat up a lot. Meaning I ended up going to the nurse quite a bit." I noticed that it was easier to talk about this with Yukina than I'd thought.

"The nurses from the schools I went to were the same as the kids and other adults. They were all bothered by my eye color. A few of the nurses were nice and gentle when patching me up. But most of them were really mean. They'd be really rough while cleaning up cuts, using way more disinfectant than necessary, rubbing the cleaning cloths in them really deep and hard. All kinds of things like that. I started not trusting anyone but my family to take care of me when I was hurt because of that."

"Now I understand why you don't like other people taking care of your injuries. But you do realize that none of us would do something like that don't you Ayla?" Yukina said.

Nodding I replied, "I know that Yukina. It's just...it's become second nature. Sorry if I upset you earlier because of what I said."

Yukina gave me a gentle smile filled with understanding. "You don't have anything to apologize for Ayla. I do have one question for you though. Will you let me heal your injuries now?"

I smiled in return, "Yeah. Yukina? Thanks for listening."

"You're welcome." As she healed my scratches she spoke, "Kazuma told me that you mentioned having healing powers."

"Ah, yeah I do. But they aren't very good. Grams has been so busy these past few years that she never had the chance to train me how to use them really well." I responded. _Hmm...I wonder..._

_~Hey Grams? Since you're having to train Kira, would it be alright if Yukina trained me with my healing powers?~_

_~Yukina will be a fine teacher. She is one of the best healers I know.~_

_~Thanks Grams!~_

"Hey Yukina? I was wondering...Could you teach me?" I asked.

"I'd like that very much. But what about Genkai?"

I chuckled, "I just asked her. She's totally fine with it." Yukina looked at me confused. Pointing at myself I reminded her, "Telepath?"

"Oh right." she giggled, "The next time you're up here we can start work on your healing powers. Though we're going to have to wait until after you train with the guys."

"What better time to learn healing? I mean look at me after one day, scratches from head to toe." I grinned.

Yukina chuckled, "True. Shall we go join the others for dinner?" She was done healing me.

"Sure, I'm starving!"


	18. First Time in my Life

_**TheHeartsPath: Hello again everyone! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in so long. My dad came back from deployment and is working on retiring. While I've been working on getting the necessary things done that will allow me to join the air force. Not to mention that I've had a severe case of writer's block. Meaning lately my life has been hell in a hand-basket. -_-' So after this chapter I have no clue when next I'll be able to update. Again I am sorry. Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its' characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_ **Dream**

**Chapter 18: First Time in my Life**

** Trees and plants rush by, both detailed and blurry. Rain gently coming down, touching all. Giving life to all. Ground soft and moist from rain.**

** Deep breath through nose. Air is cold, moist, and clean from the rain. Many scents of the forest fill the air too. Smell of dirt, plants, trees, and animals.**

** Running. Running just to run. Howls in joy of the run. Joy of smelling. Joy of living in this moment.**

** Leaps in air. Form changes. Body becomes smaller. Bones shrink, become hollow. Fur turns to feathers, front paws to wings, back paws to talons, muzzle to beak. Eyes grow sharper while scent grows weaker.**

** Flies up, through tree branches. Breaks through canopy, clouds cover sky. Flying higher, higher, and higher still. Land is far below. Greens, browns, blues, grays, so many colors down below.**

** Wind rushes under wings. Hot, cold. Rising, diving, circling. Screams in joy of the flight. Joy of seeing. Joy of living in this moment.**

** Large water below. Circling lower, closer. Form changes. Body becomes larger, longer. Bones grow and soften. Feathers turn to skin, wings to flippers, talons to tail. Sharp, hard beak to long, soft beak with teeth. Hearing becomes stronger.**

** Dives into water. Cool yet warm. Warm yet cool. Diving deeper, rising up. Around coral, through seaweed. Up, down. Twirling, spinning, looping. Colors everywhere under the blue.**

** Sounds all around. Singing, clicks, squeals. Lonely songs, pod songs. Many, many songs in this blue world.**

** Sings in joy of the swim. Joy of sounds. Joy of songs, of singing. Joy of living in this moment.**

Ayla's POV

"That dream again." I sigh, as I stare at the ceiling of my bedroom. Ever since I started my training I've been having this dream.

_How many times does this make now? It's always the same dream and yet it's not. Every time there are different animals and different places._

Someone knocks on my door before opening it. Glancing over I saw it was my mother. I resumed my staring at the ceiling.

"Oh good you're awake." she said, coming and sitting on my bed. After she got a good look at my face she frowned. "What's bothering you Ayla? You look as if you're trying to burn a hole in the ceiling with that glare."

Blinking, I looked at her in surprise. I hadn't realized that my staring was in actuality glaring. "I had that dream again." I answered.

"The one where you're different animals?" she asked.

Nodding I once again turned to gaze to the ceiling.

"I know you want to figure out what it means, but don't let it consume your thoughts. Otherwise you're going to drive yourself crazy."

I sighed, "I know Mom."

"Breakfast will be done soon. After you dress and eat you can head over to your grandmother's." She leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Remember that if you need to talk you can always come to me sweetheart. Love you."

I smiled, "Love you too Mom."

She got up, closing the door behind her. Leaving me to get dressed and to my thoughts.

It's been almost a month since the day I found out everything at Grandma Genkai's.

Hiei's POV

"Hiei are you even listening to me?" Kurama asked.

I hadn't realized that the fox was talking to me. Using the Jagan I was watching Ayla in her room and listening to her conversation with her mother. Apparently Kurama had been trying to initiate conversation while I was sitting on the tree branch outside his window.

Ayla was getting out of bed to dress, so I closed the Jagan and opened my eyes to look at Kurama. He was standing at his window, arms crossed and frowning at me.

"Hiei, I've been trying to talk to you for the past ten minutes. Care to explain why you weren't listening?"

I didn't want to tell him why I hadn't been listening to him. But I knew if I didn't that he'd badger me until I did. "I was checking on the onna."

Kurama smiled, "I thought as much."

Growling, I looked away from him and back at Ayla's house.

"As I was saying, Koenma is working on determining when Ayla's energy will settle down enough for us to intensify her training. He's really hoping that her powers will fully awaken soon so she'll be able to train and get stronger." Kurama said.

"Why is the infant so worried about when her powers fully awaken?" I asked.

"Probably because of his father. I think Koenma wants her to be able to defend herself against the SDF. Just in case King Yama finds out about her and sends them after her."

The thought of the SDF going after Ayla caused my blood to run cold. At this point in time the onna wouldn't last a minute against even the weakest member of the Spirit Defense Force. _If any of those SDF fools try to harm her I'll kill them._

"Sadly, I doubt that her energy is going to settle down anytime soon." Kurama sighed.

Wondering why he thought that I looked at him. Seeing the question on my face he continued, "I've been talking to her abuot how her training is progressing. I've also questioned her about what she remembered of how her energy acted when her telepathic and empathic abilities fully emerged. She recalled that both times it had taken her energy around a couple of months to get back to normal."

Kurama smiled, "She also mentioned that if it took longer than that she'd most likely go crazy. Apparently she isn't too happy about the constant headaches from her enhanced senses of sight and smell."

Raising an eyebrow I replied, "You said something about the same thing happening to you when your senses enhanced after having been human for a time."

"Yes I did. The headaches were rather annoying after awhile." After glancing at something in his room Kurama said, "Ayla should be heading for the temple any moment now. Yusuke will be training her today. Hopefully she won't lose her temper with him like she did last week."

Standing up on the branch I told him, "Hn, she'll be fine. It's taking longer for her to snap and lose it each time it happens." I then left to catch up with the onna who had left her home while Kurama and I were talking.

Ayla's POV

I was running at a pace that was fast, but not so fast that it would draw undue attention to me. My destination was the bus stop that was on the edge of the city closest to the temple. Which happened to be on the complete opposite side of town from my house. But hey, taking the bus from there to my grandmother's was a hell of alot cheaper than taking one closer to home. And besides, it allowed me to warm up some before training. Not to mention I was in the mood for a nice, long run.

It had been half an hour already and I was halfway there. Hiei was following me like usual, going from rooftop to rooftop. One of the guys had to either be with me or nearby at all times for my safety. Sometimes I found it really annoying, but most of the time is was strangely...comforting.

Before I'd met the guys I was always extremely tense from constantly being on guard against threats when I was alone in public and rarely felt safe. Now I was still constantly on guard for threats, but I wasn't anywhere near as tense. I also felt safe being alone in public. Which for me was kind of a foreign feeling considering the shit I dealt with growing up.

Suddenly an energy signature up ahead flared. I didn't know who the energy belonged to so I stopped running. The only thing I did know was the fact that the energy was from a demon.

_~Hiei do you recognize that energy?~_

_~No. They're C class, hardly worth noticing.~_

I leaned against the building that Hiei was on top of and crossed my arms. _~C class? Is that some kind of designation based on the level of a demon's energy?~_

_~Yes, now why are you still not moving?~_

_~Something doesn't feel right...~_

_~What are you talking about?~_

_~Heart's Song...There's something about that one that goes with that energy that just feels...wrong.~_

_~You're just imagining things.~_

_~WHAT? Like hell I am! Listen here Hiei, I've been dealing with this for my whole life! I know what I'm talking about! You're just going to have to take my word for it and...~_

The emotions of that Heart's Song got strong enough that I felt like I couldn't move. Indistinct thoughts of greed, hate, hunger for power, and blood lust flooded my mind, making it hard to think.

_~Onna? What's wrong?~_

I tried to push what I was 'hearing' away so I could answer Hiei. But more Heart's Songs and thoughts suddenly invaded my mind. I grabbed my head, shut my eyes tight, and fell to my knees. It was overwhelming. So overwhelming that I didn't notice how all of them were connected to demon signatures. Or that each and every one of those signatures were now quickly converging on my location.

Someone grabbed my shoulders and I tried to shove them away. "Onna it's me!"

Barely opening my eyes I saw that it was Hiei. "Hiei..I can't...my mind...too much..hurts." I said in a strained voice.

The thoughts were getting louder, sharper, clearer. None of them were pleasant. Unable to keep my eyes open I shut them again and buried my face in Hiei's shoulder. I couldn't make out anything Hiei said after that. I felt him pick me up bridal style and start to run.

For a few minutes all I could sense outside my mind was Hiei holding me as he ran. Sounds of the city rushed by before fading away behind us. We quickly passed through the area between the city and the nearest part of the forest. No sooner had we entered the forest and they attacked. I felt Hiei put me down and heard him drawing his sword from its sheath. Yells and the sound of metal clashing penetrated the pain in my mind.

It was obvious from the sounds that Hiei was fighting whoever was attacking us. Part of me realized that I needed to reassemble my mental shields so I would be able to fight if someone got past Hiei. The thoughts were so loud and harsh that several minutes passed before I was able to open my eyes.

Unfortunately nothing could prepare me for the sight before me.

Bodies, blood, and weapons were scattered everywhere. The sight and smells of so much blood and death started to overwhelm my senses. I had seen both before in the past but never so much of it at once. A part of my mind was screaming at me to run away from what was in front of me. Which sounded like a really good idea, but my body was frozen from shock. What was worse was that another part of my mind found the sight and smells exciting.

That even a part of me found this exciting scared the hell out of me.

Somehow that fear was what released me from my shock and allowed me to move. I looked around the clearing and quickly spotted Hiei fighting what I figured were other demons. Not a one of them looked remotely human unlike Hiei and Kurama. They all had different colored skins from one solid color to several. All of them had wicked looking claws. Some had horns or spikes and one or two had wings. Hell some of them were combinations of humanoid and animal!

Hiei was moving so fast as he fought that I was having trouble following his movements at times. Half the time I could see him just fine. The other half he was nothing more than a darting black blur. I rarely caught a glimpse of his sword, mostly it was a glimmer from light reflecting off it. Watching him fight was nothing short of amazing. I was so distracted watching Hiei fight that I didn't sense the demon that was behind me until the last second.

I jumped up and did what I had done to Kazuma on my first day of training. Spinning and kicking at the demon behind me, aiming for a head shot. Unfortunately the demon was taller than I expected and he caught my leg before my kick landed.

The guy was ugly as sin. He looked to be taller than Yoko, with skin a disgusting yellow-green and purple eyes. His face looked like it had been smashed with a giant hammer. Ram-like horns on the sides of his head, with eyes that made me think of a serpent. And to top it all off, a mouth full of several rows of teeth like a shark.

Just looking at the guy made me want to retch.

He grinned and swung me around by my leg, smacking me into a tree. When the right side of my body connected with the tree the sound of bone breaking filled my ears. A second later I screamed as a searing pain filled my arm.

"ONNA!" I heard Hiei yell. Glancing at Hiei, I saw that he was surrounded and trying to fight his way to me.

Laughing, the demon let go of my leg and grabbed my throat with both hands. Lifting me in the air as he began to strangle me. With only one arm working I couldn't loosen his grip on my throat. _Crap, I can't breathe. There has to be something I can do to get him to let go!_

An idea popped in my head about how to get away. _I really hope this demon's anatomy is just like a male human. Otherwise I'm dead._ Bracing one leg against his body, I lifted the other back as far as I could before swinging it forward as hard as possible. Hitting the guy right between the legs and hopefully his genitals.

The demon yelled, dropped me, and grabbed himself as he fell. With how quickly he let go of me after I kicked him, I wasn't able to get my legs under me before I hit the ground. So I ended up landing on my broken arm, causing me to scream in pain. Unable to truly scream from having been choked moments before all I did was cough. I got up and backed away from the demon who was now glaring at me as he stood up.

"You'll pay for that you little bitch!" he yelled, launching himself at me.

The amount of spirit energy I used in my legs now was more than what I'd used when I tried to kick him. Although this time instead of attacking I was evading. There was no way I could possibly take this guy on with a broken arm. Again and again I dodged his attacks, hoping that Hiei would be able to get rid of him soon.

Just as I was dodging one of the demon's punches he used his other hand to hit me with an energy blast. It hurt like hell when it hit me and I cried out in pain. The blast sent me flying backwards several yards and smack into a barberry bush. Resulting in me getting scratched and stabbed all to hell from the thorns. I tried to get free of the bush, but the thorns held onto my clothes, skin, and hair keeping me from going anywhere.

As I continued struggling to get loose a shadow fell on me. Looking up my eyes went wide at the dagger that was now in the demon's hand.

"Time for you to die you little bitch." he said, a sickening grin plastered on his face. He raised the dagger above his head before swiftly bringing it down towards my stomach.

_I'M GOING TO DIE!_

Suddenly everything seemed as if it was going in slow motion. I could clearly hear my breathing and heart beating above the rest of the noises in the clearing. Inside my body I felt an energy that was foreign and yet familiar straining to get free. Grasping that energy I willed it into the bush I was trapped in, picturing it growing, wrapping around, and holding the demon with its thorns.

This energy rushed through me in a way that my spirit energy had never done before. My whole body flooded with excitement as this strange energy coursed through and out of my body. Within the blink of an eye vines covered in thorns shot past me, grabbing and holding the demon in place. The dagger was also wrapped in vines, stopping it just mere inches above my stomach. Relief washed through me when I realized that, just like Kurama, I had manipulated a plant with my energy.

However, my relief vanished quicker than Hiei at his fastest when I felt something wet drip onto me. Blinking, I tried to make sense of exactly what my eyes were seeing. Several seconds passed as my brain worked on processing what I was seeing above me. The moment it clicked I started breathing too fast and fighting to not be sick.

The demon was dead.

His blood sluggishly flowing from wherever the thorns punctured. Thorns from the vines stabbed into many parts of his body. Some of them were the same length as the dagger's blade, while others were even longer. One of the vines had wrapped around his neck. A thorn as long as Hiei's sword had shoved itself under his chin and up through his head, coming out of the top of his skull. Blood was dripping from his mouth, nose, and eyes and falling on me.

My mind barely registered the lack of sounds now coming from the clearing. Nor the fact that Hiei was cutting the vines and carefully getting me out of the bush. Hiei picked me up bridal style for the second time today. Only this time the way he held me was different. It was gentler, almost as if he was afraid that I was going to fall apart at any moment.

He took off running through the forest, getting me away from the death filled clearing. Getting me away from the body of the demon I had just killed. But it didn't really help. I still kept seeing the body of the demon hanging above me in my mind. The demon whom _I_ had killed in order to live.

_I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him..._

For the first time in my life, someone had died by my hand.

For the first time in my life, I was truly terrified of what I was becoming.


	19. Connection

_**TheHeartsPath: Holy crap! It's been forever and a day since I last updated! I'm so, so, so sorry about that everyone! Lots of life's hand-baskets of hell have occurred since then. The main reasons I didn't update in so long were two things.**_

_**The memory stick that I keep my story on decided to disappear.**_

_**Not long before the aforementioned memory stick was finally found, my laptop died. -_-'**_

_**So now that I have both a new laptop and the stupid memory stick. (Which has been sentenced to my jewelry box when not in use. Hopefully this will keep the dratted thing from disappearing again.) Now here is the next chapter of Nature's Heart! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**P.S.: Right after I got everything found/bought I went over all the previous chapters and did some rewriting. That should make them easier to read now.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts ~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 19: Connection**

Hiei's POV

_If she hadn't killed that demon she would be dead_. I kept telling myself that as I ran to the temple. Ayla was in my arms, staring at nothing with tears rolling down her face. She hasn't made a single sound since we left the clearing.

I had ended up getting separated from her while I was fighting. Once I realized that I started fighting my way back to her. But every time I killed a demon, seven more would get in the way.

When she had screamed I fought even harder to get to her. I had to protect her, keep her safe from these hundreds of bastards that had chased after us. Hopefully she'd be able to hold him off until I could kill the bastard that had hurt her.

The demons had disguised their energy levels while in the city, making it only seem as if they were no more than C class. Once we'd hit the forest each of their energies had shot up to B and A class.

Demons of those levels should not have been here in the Ningenkai. Not unless they had permission from both Enki and Koenma. And those that did knew not to go after a human, whether they were spiritually aware or not. The fact that these ones had meant they were obviously here without permission. Somehow, high class demons were getting into the Ningenkai without anyone noticing.

There had still been a hundred demons between me and the onna when I saw her get thrown back into a bush full of thorns. At seeing the demon raise a dagger to kill her and start to bring it down towards her, my heart had stopped. But less than a second later a flare of energy, demon energy, came from Ayla. Thorny vines suddenly grew and grabbed the demon, killing him instantly.

A couple of minutes later I got rid of the last of the demons and then went to Ayla. With how fast she was breathing it was surprising that she hadn't hyperventilated. As quickly and carefully as possible I got her out of the thorn filled bush. She was covered in scratches and small puncture wounds from the thorns. Her right arm was broken and she had a ring of bruises around her neck. After making sure she didn't have any wounds that needed immediate attention I picked her up and started for the temple once more.

Every now and then I glanced down at Ayla. It had been the first time she had ever killed and her reaction to it had me worried. She was withdrawing into herself. Which wasn't really the best thing for her to do. Unfortunately until we were at the temple where it was safe I couldn't go into her mind and draw her out so she could begin to deal with her first kill.

Two very strong energies, one demon one spirit, flared about a mile ahead of us. It was the detective and the fool. They were heading straight for me and Ayla. In mere moments we met up with each other.

"Hiei what the hell happened?! There was suddenly a fuck ton of upper B to A class demon energies appearing and then disappearing once you let loose!" Yusuke yelled, "Not to mention that one really powerful demon energy that flared up just before the rest disappeared!"

"Aw man, what happened to Ayla? She doesn't look so good." the fool said. He was practically standing on top of me and looking at the onna in worry.

Growling I said, "Contact Kurama, tell him to get to the temple. Once we're all there and Ayla's injuries are being taken care of I'll explain. Until then, keep your foolish questions to yourselves." With that out of the way I took off for the temple again. Leaving them behind for a few moments before they started following.

I could hear Yusuke behind me contacting the fox with his communication mirror. After a couple of minutes there was a clicking sound. Signaling the closing of the communication mirror and the end of their conversation.

"Kurama's already on his way. He sensed those demons attacking you and Ayla. Fox boy contacted Koenma and told him about them. So now pacifier breath is gonna show up at the temple too." the detective informed us.

_Koenma...Damn infant is only coming to yell and complain about those demons being in Ningenkai. He better leave the onna alone. She doesn't need to deal with that idiot prince right now._

I was already angry at myself for not protecting Ayla, but hearing that Koenma would be at the temple made my anger grow. Something told me that he was going to yell at the onna and bark orders at her. Meaning I was going to be fighting the urge to kill him.

Ayla shifted in my arms, leaning her head on my shoulder and placing her left hand on my chest. It was the first movement she had done since leaving the clearing.

Judging by her vacant expression, she was still unaware of everything around her. I couldn't help but wonder why she had moved the way she had. There was something about it that was familiar, but at the moment I couldn't place it. All I knew was that after she moved my anger seemed to lessen.

_That's it! Now I remember why it's familiar._

_**FLASHBACK: 2 WEEKS AGO**_

The detective and the oaf were playing some stupid human game on the television and bickering. I was about ready to cut their tongues out of their heads from their incessant noise making.

Kurama was in another part of the temple with Genkai and Kira. He was curious about what an empath needed to know about their ability in order to stay sane. So while Kira was learning and training with her grandmother, Kurama was gaining knowledge as well.

"HA! I win again! Take that Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled.

"DAMN IT! Urameshi you cheated! I would've won if you hadn't elbowed me in the ribs!" Kuwabara yelled back.

"Yeah right! You just suck at this game!"

_Must those idiots be so loud?_

Normally I wouldn't even think about staying in the same room as those two when they were being so obnoxiously loud. Unfortunately it was pouring rain outside, causing me to remain indoors. There was also the fact that the window I always sat at was in the same room as the television. The only good thing about being in this room was that both Yukina and Ayla were there.

Ayla's training for the day had ended a few minutes before the rain had started. We'd all gotten to the temple just as the rain began to fall, so no one got soaked.

_Well, almost no one._

Still facing the window I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the onna. None of us had noticed that she hadn't followed us into the temple. It was only after Yukina had asked where Ayla was that we realized she was still outside. I had gone back to the door we'd come in from and seen her standing in the rain, with her face lifted up, eyes closed and smiling.

For a minute all I could do was watch her enjoy the rain.

But then I had remembered that she needed to come inside for her healing lessons before she got sick from standing in the cold rain. She didn't argue or even glare at me when I had told her to get in the temple like I thought she would. She had merely smiled at me and asked if I could tell Yukina that she would be right there after she changed into some dry clothes, before she disappeared inside the temple.

From my place at the window, I watched as Ayla attempted to heal a gash in the lower part of her left leg. She had acquired it during her spar with Yusuke. A large shard of stone from a boulder that Yusuke ended up punching had hit her as it flew past her.

It took her several minutes to completely heal her leg since she was exhausted from today's training. The skin looked as if there had never even been a wound there to begin with. Showing that her skills as a healer were improving rapidly.

Her fighting skills were improving as well. The injuries she obtained today were fewer in number than in previous training sessions. She had even managed to land a few decent hits on the detective. One of which had actually made him stumble for a moment before regaining his balance.

"Whew! I never knew healing would take so much out of me." Ayla said as she leaned back against the wall. "How did I do with fixing up my leg Yukina?"

Yukina checked her leg over with her own healing powers. "You did very well Ayla. Although you did forget to heal a small amount of the bruising deeper in the muscle." she replied.

The onna smiled and was about to say something when a loud crash and yelling came from the other side of the room. Ayla, Yukina, and I all looked towards the noise to see what was going on. What we saw was the detective and the fool wrestling around on the floor, their game obviously forgotten.

After finding out that the two idiots were just being more idiotic I turned back to the window. Ignoring what was going on behind me, I allowed my thoughts to wander. No matter what I thought of somehow my thoughts always came back to Ayla. Her training, what she needs to learn, what she wants to learn, her love of learning and training. So many of my thoughts that revolved around her.

It was both annoying and pleasant. But for the most part it was just damn confusing.

Thoroughly lost in my thoughts as I was, I failed to detect an object that was flying through the air in my direction. Which resulted in said object hitting me in the back of the head. The amount of force it hit with wasn't enough to cause any pain. But being hit with whatever it was did piss me off.

I got up from my spot at the window and glared at both Yusuke and Kuwabara. Both of whom had stopped moving and were staring at me with wide, fearful eyes.

"Which one of you two idiots threw it?" I growled out, "Because the one who did is about to die."

"HE DID!" they both yelled, pointing at the other. "I DID NOT! IT WAS YOU!" they yelled again, but at each other this time. Once again they were bickering like children. Very loud children.

_That's it, they're both dead._

I drew my sword and went to stand over them in less than a second. Both of them yelped in fear as I placed the tip of my blade between their faces. It's always amusing to hear either of them yelp in fear like that.

Before I could say or do anything else the onna was suddenly there in front of me, my sword going past her side. "Easy Hiei. No need to slice and dice the idiots. Beat the hell out of them sure, but no killing okay?" she said.

"No one asked you onna. Now get out of my way." I replied as I glanced at her momentarily.

"She may not have been asked, but I like what she said. Well, the no slice and dice, and no killing parts anyways." Yusuke spoke up.

Kuwabara nodded in agreement, "Yeah, same here."

I gave no visible sign of preparing to attack. Yet the moment before I was about to move Ayla prevented me from doing so. All with a single, simple gesture.

She stepped close enough to me that there was no space between us. Placing her left hand on my chest, she then laid her head upon my left shoulder, with her face turned towards mine.

Within seconds my anger at the detective and fool began to fade. It was strange having my anger fade away so easily. Given the fact that such a thing had never happened before, I was surprised that it didn't bother me.

My surprise at what she was doing and its results caused all of my attention to shift from the idiots on the floor to Ayla.

Her face was a reflection of mine. A mixture of surprise and confusion. Although it was more pronounced on her face compared to my own.

We stayed like that for a time, not moving or saying a word. It was as if everything had come to a standstill, save for the two of us. Neither of us noticed when the others left the room, nor how much time passed.

Then at some unspoken word of agreement, we moved apart.

We kept eye contact, speaking without words, either vocal or telepathic and came to an understanding. Neither of us knew nor understood just what was happening between us, but accepted that it was. Things were occurring often enough that we kept noticing this strange connection we had and how it continued growing stronger.

It was obvious that fighting it would be pointless. So we wouldn't. Nor would we try to force it into something we could understand. Instead we would continue on as we had before.

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Genkai and Yukina were waiting outside the temple for us. The old woman took one look at her granddaughter before telling me to take Ayla to her room so Yukina could begin to heal her. I didn't bother to listen to anything else Genkai or the two behind me said to each other after that. My focus was solely on the onna in my arms.

It was unnerving how silent and still she was being.

She needed to be brought back from within herself. Even if it meant I had to drag her out. Not dealing with what had happened earlier would only make things worse for her in the end.

_I won't let you withdraw from everything onna. I'll help you come to terms with the fact that you have killed for the first time._

_This connection we have...It has become important to me...You...Ayla...You have become important to me...I will not lose you to yourself Ayla...I refuse to lose you._


	20. It Can't Be Can It?

_**TheHeartsPath: Ok people I finally have it done! This chapter kept running in circles in my brain so I ended up writing a part here and a part there. Then I had to figure out how I was going to make all the parts fit just right! I actually got dizzy trying to put this thing together! LOL So here it is! The 20th chapter of this story! Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**F3ARTH3RIPP3R asked a question about what Ayla is as a druid. An Oak Seer or the ancient Irish form which means Sorcerer. All I'll say for the time being is that Ayla is kind of a mix between an Oak Seer and Sorcerer. I will try to explain what I mean exactly at a later date. (I need to figure out how to explain it so I don't confuse people...or myself.) If you want to know what either of those are I suggest looking them up online.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts_ _~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 20: It Can't Be...Can It?**

Koenma's POV

How in all the levels of hell did so many upper B to A class demons appear in the Ningenkai without anyone noticing? With all the precautions that were being taken by Enki and himself, it should have been downright impossible! But from what Kurama had reported there had been over three hundred of them!

They needed to figure out how this had happened and prevent it from doing so again. The faster, the better!

"George, quickly get an investigation squad sent to the clearing in Ningenkai. I want them to look over the bodies of those demons. There might be a clue on one of them that can tell us how they got there and why." I ordered.

"Right away Koenma sir!" George ran out the door.

I hit a button on my desk, causing a television screen to come down from the ceiling. Pushing another button made it turn on and connect to Botan's communication mirror. "Botan, I need you to come to my office immediately. This is of the utmost importance."

Botan nodded, "I'll be right there Koenma."

The connection ended, turning the screen black once more. Unconsciously I pressed the same button that had brought the screen down, thus returning it to the ceiling. I sighed as I stood up and walked around my desk so I could pace while I thought.

_Over three hundred upper B to A class demons in Ningenkai. All of them with their energy disguised as C class. Even with all of them disguising their energy they should have been noticed during the time they were in the city._

_Kurama told me that he keeps track of the amount of demon energy that is in the city. He can't keep track of an exact number, not for lack of trying on his part, but at least an estimate. It's gotten to where he is able to tell if a demon is suppressing their energy to make them seem weaker. Even if they don't want anyone to know. But with these demons he couldn't do that. As if something or someone was preventing him from doing so._

_Those energies he sensed were not there the day before. Hell not even an hour before they attacked Ayla and Hiei._

Hearing the door to my office open brought me out of my musings. I stopped pacing and turned to Botan as she was shutting the door.

"I came as quickly as I could Koenma. What's going on?"

"I received a communication from Kurama a few minutes ago. Apparently over three hundred upper B to A class demons attacked Ayla and Hiei in the forest that's outside of the city." I informed her.

She gasped, "But...but how is that possible? So many demons of those classes shouldn't be in Ningenkai! At least not without permission and something or someone to monitor them!"

"They disguised their energy while in the city. Made it appear as if they were C class demons instead. What's more Kurama said that the energies of the demons weren't in the city for even an hour before attacking." I resumed my pacing while continuing to explain. "It's quite obvious that they managed to get to Ningenkai without anyone noticing. Which leads to two questions. How did they get there without anyone noticing? And why did they come in the first place?"

Neither of us had an answer to either question.

Before anything else could be said the door opened and George came inside, closing the door behind him. "I take it that the investigation squad has left for the clearing George?" I asked.

George shook his head, "I'm afraid not sir. I told them what you wanted done, but just as they were about to gather what they needed for the job, Captain Otake showed up."

"What did the captain of the SDF want?" Botan asked.

"He said that King Yama forbid them from following Koenma's order. That investigating the clearing was neither important or necessary in any way. And that King Yama had already sent a cleanup squad out and they had taken care of the clearing." George finished explaining.

"This doesn't make sense! Why would my father do something like this? This is something that should be investigated to the fullest extent, in order to keep it from happening again!" I exclaim, both confused and annoyed. _Why would father do this? There's no reason for something like this to be done._

_Unless...No...It can't be...can it?_

Unless he was the one behind all of it.

I quickly pushed the button on my desk that would open a portal to Ningenkai. "George stay here and keep an eye on things. Contact me at once if anything happens. Botan you're coming with me to Genkai's temple. We need to talk with Yusuke and the others. I fear things are about to go from bad to worse."

"Yes sir." both answered.

As I walked through the portal with Botan beside me, a terrible thought ran through my mind.

_Father knows about Ayla._

Ayla's POV (Ayla's Mind)

Sitting beside the lake where I met the panther and jaguar I stared at the water. The wind was blowing just strong enough to cause tiny waves and ripples to dance across the surface. Sounds of tree branches full of lush leaves rustling, the water of the river flowing, and the different animal calls filled the air. It was unusually peaceful here in my mind considering what had happened that caused me to retreat into myself. None of my injuries from outside my mind were present either.

It seemed so strange to feel safer here inside my mind rather than outside of it. My family and friends are outside. I know that my family wouldn't hold the fact that I've killed someone against me. Especially since it was in self-defense. My friends probably wouldn't be bothered by it either. Hiei obviously wouldn't considering I saw him fighting and killing demons a little while ago.

My eyes narrowed in thought. _It has only been a little while ago right? Or does time move differently in my mind? Faster or slower? Oh who the bloody hell knows..._

I sighed and shook my head. I was doing it again. Every time I tried to think about what I had done in The Clearing my brain would distract me with a random thought. The Clearing was how I thought of that place now.

Rationally I knew that I needed to come to terms with the fact that I now had blood on my hands. I wouldn't be able to move on in any kind of way if I didn't. Wrapping my mind around what happened and convincing it that it was the only thing I could do was..._Simple_ isn't exactly the right word. Because acknowledging and accepting that you killed someone sure as hell isn't _simple._

My heart was another matter entirely.

Tears were pouring down my face. There was a weird...I guess you would call it 'ghost feeling' of another set of tears doing the same thing on my face. I was betting that 'ghost feeling' was an echo of the tears going down the face of my outside body. It wouldn't surprise me at all if once I was out of my mind, I discovered that I had indeed been physically crying.

Speaking of 'ghost feelings', I also felt as if I was being carried...no...more like cradled in someone's arms. As if I was being held by someone who felt I was important. I felt safe.

_Hiei..._

That's right, I could vaguely recall Hiei picking me up to carry me before leaving The Clearing. The death filled clearing where I killed that demon.

An image of the dead demon looming over me took over my sense of sight for a moment before I quickly shoved it away. I fought to keep from throwing up after having seen the image again for what had to be the millionth time. _That's definitely going to be revisiting me for a long time. Particularly in the nightmare department._

I hugged myself tighter, unconsciously fearing that if I didn't do so I'd break and shatter into pieces. That wasn't what I wanted to happen. I wanted to get out of my mind and be with everyone. I needed someone that could help me come to terms with the events of The Clearing.

_I need Hiei._

All of a sudden there was this...sensation...of something tugging at me. Not in a way that hurt though. It was like the feeling you get when your instincts are telling you to do something. And yet at the same time it wasn't like that at all.

Without knowing it I had gotten up from where I had been sitting beside the lake and was walking into the surrounding forest. I stopped for a moment wondering if I should really be following this strange sensation. Just as I had decided to ignore it and turned back around pain hit me throughout my body.

The pain was so intense that I ended up collapsing on the ground and resisting the urge to scream. It was as if everything that made me who and what I am, was being broken and ripped to shreds all at once. I tried to push the intense pain I was feeling away when I realized something that both shocked and horrified me. Someone else was feeling the exact same pain I was. I could sense their confusion as to where the pain was coming from and why it was happening.

Suddenly I heard a double-voiced yell coming from the surrounding trees.

_~Foolish kitling! You must not ignore that which you feel! Ignoring it will only result in pain for the both of you! Rise kitling! Rise and follow that which you tried to ignore! Follow it and see what lies at the end of this path! To do otherwise is to cause great suffering for you both! You must go quickly kitling! Your foolishness has caused IT to begin unraveling! If you do not hurry IT will do so completely! If that happens IT can never be restored!~_

I recognized the voices belonging to the panther and jaguar. While they may not have ever given me straight answers about anything, they have never lied to me. Laying here on the ground, writhing in pain was only wasting precious time. Gritting my teeth, I got to my feet and forced myself to run as fast as I could towards the source of the tugging and the pain.

Colors blurred as I weaved around trees, shoved through bushes, and jumped over logs, rocks, and streams. Different animals screeched, howled, and screamed at me as I passed. Every single call made perfect sense to me. I could understand what each and everyone of them was saying. They were urging me to hurry before it was too late.

Finally after what felt like hours and yet was mere minutes, I came upon the place to which I was being called.

A clearing with a single tree at the center. The tree was enormous in its size. Signifying that it wasn't just old, but extremely ancient.

It was an oak tree.

All that I was in the past, all that I was in the present, and all that I would be and could be in the future resided here. This was the very axis of my being. I knew all of this instinctively.

I came up to the oak, _my_ oak, and rested my hand on the bark. The pain I had been feeling intensified and I dropped to my knees, with my hand still touching my oak's bark. There was what sounded like a scream of pain coming from above, up in the branches. Moments later something extremely large fell from them and hit the ground not far from me, whimpering in obvious pain.

Something that looked almost like a ribbon made of energy connected my oak and the creature that had fallen from it. The ribbon was literally fraying right before my eyes. Strands were snapping left and right. And for every strand that broke, the creature would cry out in pain and I would flinch as I felt the same pain. This ribbon had to be the 'IT' the cats were referring to earlier.

Not caring that I might end up in more pain with what I was about to do, I threw myself at the energy ribbon. Grabbing it with both my hands I screamed as even more intense pain shot through me. It was fighting me trying to continue what it had been doing. Refusing to allow the ribbon to keep tearing apart I did the only thing I could think of. I poured my energy into the ribbon, focusing on putting it back together. Focused on mending it back to being as it was before I caused it to shred itself.

The ribbon continued to fight against me for a time, until it finally accepted that I truly wanted to heal it. Once it stopped fighting me it actually began to repair itself. Even though it was doing so I didn't stop using my healing ability until I knew it had returned to what it once was. Once it was restored it faded out of sight. I could sense that it was still there, just that it no longer needed to be visible in order to remain existing.

Turning around I went over to the creature from before. It wasn't a part of myself in the sense that the other animals and creatures in my mind were, but it was a part of me by the ribbon connecting it to my oak. From the way its body moved as it breathed I assumed it had passed out after the pain stopped. I knelt beside it, gently placing my hands upon its hide. Closing my eyes I focused on healing the creature that had suffered because of my stupidity.

As I healed it I noticed that not only did its energy feel familiar, but its scent was as well. Both were extremely familiar. Although it wasn't until I had finished healing it and opened my eyes that I made the connection on why it was so damn familiar.

Staring right at me was a creature with a very long, graceful, and powerful body covered in shiny, black scales. Two large feet with four extremely sharp claws. And a pair of eyes that reminded me of another.

_It can't be...can it?_

That question echoed repeatedly in my head as a large pair of crimson eyes stared at me.

Hiei's POV

Once we were in the onna's room I noted that Kira was sitting at the foot of the bed, clearly waiting for us. Nodding at the girl, I then sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard and cradled Ayla in my arms. Yukina didn't say anything about what I was doing, she just smiled and started healing Ayla.

Laying Ayla on the bed is what Genkai would have wanted me to do. But I couldn't bring myself to let go of her. Something inside of me knew that she needed to be held. To feel safe.

Yukina was still in the middle of healing my onna's injuries when Genkai and the others came in the room. The others being Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama. Apparently the infant had not arrived yet. I didn't bother looking up as I was completely focused on Ayla.

As much as I wanted to use the Jagan and bring her outside of her mind, I knew that doing so while she was injured like this wasn't a good idea. I had used the Jagan to quickly check how she was doing in her mind, but that was all. From what I managed to glimpse she was at least trying to deal with what had happened earlier on her own. It hadn't appeared to be going so well, though it did mean I didn't have to worry about her withdrawing from everything.

"I've healed all of her injuries. She'll need to rest for a day or two though. Her body isn't used to using demon energy and since she used so much at once her body is exhausted." Yukina explained.

Genkai nodded, "Two days of rest sounds right. Though we're gonna have to keep an eye on her to make sure she actually rests. Ayla has never liked being confined to bed rest in order to recover from anything."

I laid Ayla on the bed beside me and opened my mouth to speak when the pain hit. It was so sudden and intense that I couldn't keep from crying out from it. My entire body, hell it felt like every single part of my being was in the process of being tortured and destroyed. I had no idea where the pain was coming from or why it was happening in the first place.

My sense of my surroundings dulled, but I was able to tell that someone had moved me away from Ayla and onto the floor. A moment later I realized there was an echo of the pain I was feeling. The second I realized that I knew it meant that Ayla was feeling the same thing. I have no idea just _how_ I knew this, but I did.

A scream sounded from almost right above me. It was one that I had heard not very long ago in a certain clearing. I tried to throw whoever was holding me down off, but the pain was making me too weak to do so.

The voice of a young girl managed to break through the fog the pain caused in my mind. "Stop keeping them apart! Put Hiei on the bed next to sissy! They need to be next to each other! Please! Can't you sense IT? You're just hurting them more!"

I could hardly feel myself being moved from the floor to the bed with all of this damn pain. But the moment I was laid next to Ayla the pain wasn't quite as intense.

Suddenly the pain disappeared, causing me to be on the brink of passing out. I felt Ayla's hand grab my own and her spirit energy wrap around me, healing me of the pain I had gone through. Part of me wanted to yell at her for not taking care of her own pain first. But another part of me was touched that she was more worried about me than herself.

Before I fell into unconsciousness, I used the Jagan to try for another glimpse inside her mind. What I saw was much more than a glimpse.

Inside the mind of Ayla, my onna, was the dragon that was the very axis of my being.

And it was connected to the largest oak tree I had ever seen. The axis of her being.

Just before I slipped from her mind and into sleep a single thought ran through my head.

_It can't be...can it?_


	21. Soul-mates?

_**TheHeartsPath: Well what do you know? The 21st chapter has finally appeared! Guess that means my story is finally of legal age now eh? LOL Please read and review! Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters. They are owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. I own only Ayla, her family, and any other characters that do not show up in the series.**_

"Talking" _Thoughts_ _~Telepathy or mind-reading~_

**Chapter 21: Soul-mates?**

Genkai's POV

"What the hell just happened?!" Yusuke yelled.

"I would like to know that myself. I've never seen anything quite like that before." Kurama calmly said.

I watched my unconscious granddaughter hold Hiei's hand and heal him with her spirit energy. As far as I knew to heal while in such a state was impossible. Then again, it should also be impossible for Ayla to be descended from the first druids. Given the fact that they were wiped out.

_So how is it that she is able to heal Hiei while unconscious like this? The boys and Yukina have told me about how her training has been coming along. Her skills as a fighter are improving at a good pace. However her healing skills are improving even faster. Which is probably due to her druid heritage. According to Kurama they did usually prefer healing to fighting._

My gaze shifted from the two laying on the bed to the other side of the room. Where Kuwabara was sitting a few feet from the foot of the bed, on the floor with a distraught Kira in his lap. Yukina was sitting right beside them, gently petting Kira's head. The two of them were trying to calm her down and comfort her. She was shaking badly while crying her eyes out. It was quite obvious from her reactions and words to what had been happening to Ayla and Hiei, that her empathy allowed her to sense something that the rest of us couldn't.

I walked over to them and sat down in a spot where Kira could see me without having to turn her head. "Kira, how did you know that they needed to be next to each other? And what was the thing you were sensing?" I asked.

Kira sniffled and brushed her tears away, only for more to replace them seconds later. She started to reply, but because of crying so hard, she began having hiccups. Kuwabara gently rubbed her back, while Yukina used some of her healing powers to help settle her body down.

It took several minutes, but once she was calm enough to stop hiccuping she answered, "I'm not sure how to explain it Grandma Genkai. But there's something connecting them. Separating them was hurting IT, so it was hurting them too."

"Who's connected? And am I seeing things or is Hiei laying in the same bed as Ayla...and holding hands with her?" asked a familiar male voice.

We all looked towards the door of Ayla's bedroom to see both Koenma and Botan standing there. Koenma was in his teenage form, looking completely flabbergasted at the two on the bed. Meanwhile Botan appeared to be fighting laughter at her boss's facial expression, which was reminiscent of a fish trying to breathe out of water and failing. His mouth was opening and closing repeatedly with no sound coming out, yet still managing to keep that damn pacifier of his from falling out.

"About damn time you got here pacifier breath!" Yusuke growled out angrily, "Care to explain how the hell so many demons managed to not only get into the Ningenkai, but attack two of our people! Or how the fuck they were able to keep Kurama from knowing they were hiding their power!"

Hearing Yusuke's anger filled voice helped Koenma to snap out of his shock. Though it seemed to take him a minute to recall exactly what it was that Yusuke had said. Koenma sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I actually came here to talk about what happened earlier. And what didn't happen after I ordered something done."

Kurama placed a hand on the dimwit's shoulder just as he was about to yell at Koenma again. Yusuke turned to glare at him until he saw the look in the red head's eyes. There was a large amount of worry and caution in those emerald orbs.

"Something has transpired that has confirmed our worst fear hasn't it Koenma?" the former thief calmly asked.

That one question caused everyone who was awake to tense up and focus solely on the prince of the Reikai.

Koenma nodded, again running his hand through his hair. "I had ordered for an investigation squad to go to the clearing where the attack took place. To try and find any clues on the bodies about how the demons managed to get there and why. Unfortunately, Captain Otake told them that my father forbid them from following my order. He also told them that it wasn't important or necessary to investigate it in any way. Father had apparently already sent out a cleanup squad and they had taken care of the clearing."

Complete and total silence ensued after hearing what Koenma said. Which to say the least, was an unusual occurrence considering certain members of our group. A few minutes later the silence was broken.

"It would seem that not only does King Yama know about Ayla, but was also behind the attack today. There is no other reason for him to forbid others from following Koenma's orders. Not to mention having the clearing taken care of, therefore getting rid of any possible evidence to his part." said Kurama.

Kuwabara spoke up with a confusion in evident in his voice. "But why would he use demons to go after Ayla? I mean, wouldn't having the SDF go after her have been easier? Cause last I knew, most demons don't even like the thought of working with the Reikai."

"Easier yes, but also more obvious that he is after her. By using demons to attack instead of the SDF it gives the appearance that someone else is out to get Ayla." I explained. It worried me a great deal that it hadn't even been a month since everything started and already my granddaughter had been attacked like this.

"I agree. Though one must wonder why he would go to such lengths to hide his involvement. Only to turn around and make it so obvious by forbidding others from following Koenma's orders. Not to mention having the clearing dealt with so swiftly." Kurama mused aloud.

Yusuke crossed his arms and frowned. "What if the bastard has gone senile? That would explain his actions better wouldn't it? If the guy's off his rocker, he won't be thinking straight and will make mistakes like that right?"

_When the hell did the dimwit start actually using that brain of his?_ I wasn't sure which worried me more. King Yama trying to kill my granddaughter, or Yusuke actually being smart for once.

Both Koenma and Botan paled, shaken at the questions Yusuke had presented. An equally shaken Kurama quietly spoke, "If King Yama really has lost his mind, then things are worse than we originally thought. Much worse."

_The king of Reikai, insane? The words 'much worse' don't even begin to describe the situation we're in. Only one phrase comes close to doing so. We're in deep shit._

Koenma's POV

_If Father really has gone insane then all three of the worlds are in trouble. We'll need to inform Enki about the possibility. Shit! That means informing him about Ayla as well! Yeah, __**that**__ ought to go over __**real**__ well with Genkai and the guys._ I mentally groaned at the mere idea of bringing that up. _I need to think about something else for a few minutes. At least until we can think of our next move where Ayla's safety is concerned._

Moving my gaze around the room, I tried to come up with something else to think about. For a moment my eyes rested on the young girl that was sitting in Kuwabara's lap. _Her face is familiar. Ah yes, she's the youngest of Genkai's grandchildren. If I remember correctly her name is Kira._ She was the one that had spoke about someone being connected. Exactly what she meant by that I had no idea.

After having looked everywhere in the room, but at the bed where Hiei and Ayla lay, I settled my gaze there. It was quite the odd sight to see. Yet at the same time, it felt as if it was an indescribably natural sight. The two of them laying side by side, and holding hands. With Ayla somehow using her spirit energy to heal Hiei while asleep.

_Now that's definitely not a normal occurrence. There's only one way that I know of which allows a person to heal another like this while they are unconscious. And that was only when the two people that were involved are s-..._

I couldn't help my body suddenly stiffening, nor my eyes widening in reaction to my train of thought. While I had yet to personally see how Ayla and Hiei acted with each other, I still knew from what others had told me. Mostly from Kurama of course.

All of the different pieces of information that I had on the way they interacted swiftly began coming together. It was almost as if I could literally _hear_ the clicking of the different puzzle pieces being put together to make the bigger picture.

The way Ayla wholeheartedly trusted Hiei, not even a day after they met.

The way Hiei quickly became extremely protective of Ayla.

The ways they spoke, bantered, and argued with one another.

The ways they looked at, moved around, and touched each other.

And now this most current interaction of theirs. This unconscious healing that Ayla was performing on Hiei.

Each and every one of those different things, big and small, pointed to Hiei and Ayla being one thing. Something that was considered to be truly precious and cherished, in not only the Reikai, but in the Makai as well. Something that most humans in the Ningenkai believed to be nothing more than a mere myth.

Soul-mates_!_

This was definitely an unexpected, though not unpleasant development! For someone to find their soul-mate is an extremely rare occurrence! To also bond with their soul-mate is even rarer! Even in all the seven centuries that I have been alive there have been only six records of soul-mates finding each other and bonding in that time frame!

_Though now it will be seven records of course. I can't believe these two are soul-mates Well I can since I've met other soul-mate pairs before, but that's not the point! Hiei and Ayla? Never saw that one coming! No sir! This will actually make it easier to get not only Enki, but Yomi and Mukuro, to help with training and protecting Ayla._

I crossed my arms and looked at the ceiling while I continued to think. The first thing that would have to be done before anything else would be telling everyone here about this new discovery...Make that the second thing actually. Since I just remembered that I should use the technique that confirms whether a soul-mate bond is in fact real or not.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the absurdity of the idea of what I'm seeing between Ayla and Hiei not being a real soul-mate bond. There were too many factors for it to ever be anything else.

As I walked over to the bed, I uncrossed my arms and began to quietly chant the technique's incantation. Once next to the bed I began slowly raising my voice and make the few necessary hand signs that the technique required to work. My spirit energy gathered around my hands, causing them to glow a shimmering dark teal color.

Not even a minute later the incantation was finished and the gathered energy left my hands to wrap around the pair on the bed. A couple of moments later the energy changed color to a mixture of three different colors. Those were crimson, a medium sage green, and a bright amber brown. Hiei and Ayla's respective eye colors.

'_The eyes are the window to the soul.' How true that phrase really is._

And connecting those colors altogether was the color that I was watching for and expecting to see. A color that doesn't really have a name, for it was two colors at once, and yet it was neither of them. A sparkling golden-silver or silverish-gold. The one color that signifies that their souls are connected in the strongest and most precious of bonds in existence. The soul-mate bond.

The color that represented the soul-mate bond wasn't shining as brightly as it could though. At the moment it was nothing more than a slight shimmer. Not surprising in the least since it would not become a full and bright glow until the bond was completely formed.

Releasing the technique caused all the colors to fade out of sight. It also resulted in me having a small dizzy spell since I was suddenly no longer using such a complex technique. It was the only known way of truly and completely confirming the existence of a soul-mate bond in any of the three worlds.

"Mind telling me what the hell you were doing just now to my granddaughter and Hiei?" Genkai growled.

Turning my head towards the foot of the bed I couldn't help but swallow in fear. The glare Genkai was giving me at this very moment was scarier than all of the glares I've ever seen her give before put together. Even the ones that weren't directed at myself.

_ On second thought, I __**really**__ should have mentioned what I was going to do BEFORE I did it...Oops._

Kurama's POV

I have lived for over three millennia and this is the first time I have ever seen proof of a soul-mate bond. Even if the bond has not completely finished forming yet. _Which is more than likely a good thing since I highly doubt Genkai would be happy if they had gone that far in their...Is relationship even the right word for what Hiei and Ayla have?_

"He caused no harm to either of them, if that is what you are worrying about Genkai. What Koenma just did was perform an ancient technique that reveals whether or not a certain kind of bond is either forming or completely formed between two people." I quickly explained.

She turned her glare to me right after the word 'bond' left my mouth. "If I find out that this _bond_ you are talking about was forced on my granddaughter..."

"NO!" both myself and Koenma shouted. It greatly surprised those in the room that I had not just raised my voice, but actually shouted. Yusuke and Kuwabara were both looking at me as if I had suddenly grown several more heads.

Feeling my face heat up slightly I spoke, "Forgive me for shouting like that. But you must understand, this kind of bond can _never_ be forced. It is such a rare bond that I myself, who has lived for over _three thousand years,_ has never actually seen evidence of one."

"Indeed, such a bond is extremely rare." Koenma said, "The bond that Hiei and Ayla have will only be the seventh record of it occurring in the last seven _centuries._ The only reason I know about those is because I've met the bonded pairs when they've come to Reikai after dying."

No one said anything for a minute or two after that. Though there were quite a few looks exchanged as the others wondered what kind of bond could possibly be _that_ rare.

"Wait a second!" Kuwabara suddenly exclaimed, "That's what Kira sensed! She said that something was connecting them! Somehow Kira must be able to feel this bond that Kurama and Koenma are talking about!"

"Hey you're right! But how come she was able to sense it and the rest of us couldn't?" Yusuke asked.

"We can figure that out at a later time. Right now I just want to know one thing. What kind of bond is it that Ayla and Hiei have?" Genkai said looking back and forth between Koenma and I.

Koenma glanced at me, before sighing and focusing on Genkai. "The two of them have a soul-mate bond. Although at this point it is not fully formed."

"Whoa, hold up! Soul-mate bond? Are...are you serious? Something like that...is actually _real_?" Yusuke stuttered in shock.

"Yes Yusuke, a soul-mate bond is very much real. Such a bond is considered truly precious and cherished in both the Reikai and Makai. Meaning we can get help from not only Enki, but from Yomi and Mukuro as well. They'll both want to help protect and train Ayla." I told him.

Yusuke blinked while he processed what I said. "Well that makes things easier doesn't it? Since we're gonna have to make sure that bastard Yama doesn't have Ayla killed, we can use all the help we can get." He smirked, "I'll get in contact with Hokushin, see if he can find Yomi and his kid Shura. Last I heard they were somewhere in Tourin."

I nodded, "That is what I heard as well. I will work on contacting Jin, Touya, Chu, Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, and Suzuki. As all of them are still living in Gandara. Contacting Mukuro will need to be done as well."

"Don't worry about it. I'll ask Hokushin to get either Seitei or Touou to go and talk to Mukuro. And have the other get in touch with Enki." Yusuke looks at Koenma when he starts to talk. "Look we need you in Reikai to keep an eye on your old man. If you come to Makai you can't do that."

"Urameshi's right. You can help us more being there than if you were somewhere else." Kuwabara agreed. "The more you're in Reikai, the higher your chances of knowing when he'll be coming after us. That way you can send Botan to relay anything you might find out."

Botan shook her head in bewilderment. "Since when do you two think so far ahead about stuff like this?" The question was one that the rest of us were thinking as well.

Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at each other, then back at the rest of us and shrugged.

"Since now I guess." said Yusuke. Turning back to Kuwabara he frowned, "Sorry 'bout this buddy, but it might be..."

"Better if I stay here? No problem Urameshi. I'll keep an eye on things here." Kuwabara looked down at Kira, who was actually sitting between him and Yukina at this point. "Ayla would probably have a fit if someone wasn't here to keep an eye on her family. I'll be able to take Kira home and bring her back to the temple whenever she's going to train."

_It would appear that both Yusuke and Kuwabara have been doing some growing up. And it is because of Kira. They've both come to think of her as the baby sister neither of them had._ I smiled, remembering who I had overheard them talking about how Kira had gotten to the both of them. Yusuke actually cut back on his cursing when Kira was around.

Genkai snorted, "She would definitely have a fit alright." She took a few moments to look at the two boys, before turning back to Koenma. "You mentioned that their bond isn't fully formed. Why is that exactly?"

Koenma stiffened and paled considerably. He looked at me, his eyes practically begging me to explain in his place.

Seeing his reaction and who he was looking at, she shifted her attention to me. She didn't say anything, not that she needed to. Her raised eyebrow was enough. 'Spill it!' was what it almost seemed to scream.

I glared at Koenma for choosing this moment to be a coward. _I hate you so much right now Koenma..._ Clearing my throat I looked back at Genkai. "The reason their bond isn't fully formed is because they haven't...fulfilled the last requirement to complete their soul-mate bond." I could feel myself blushing at the words I was about to say, "In other words, they haven't had sex yet."

"WHAT?!" yelled two voices. One male and one female. Coming from the direction of the bed.

Everyone's heads quickly turned towards the bed. Hiei and Ayla were both sitting up, and blushing enough to rival a couple of tomatoes. The glare Hiei was directing at me had me cringing.

_Of course they decide that __**now**__ is the perfect time to wake up...This is one conversation I am most definitely __**not**__ looking forward to...I just had to be the one they heard it from instead of Koenma...Damn you Koenma. Damn you._


End file.
